There hasn't been a lot to post, I'm happy to report, for a few reasons. For one, the only training he's been getting is 2 sessions a day of dremel makes yummy things happen. Either the sight or the sound. I'm not sure totally sure he's ready for this counter conditioning but he's showing signs of relaxing and I desperately need to do his nails soon so I'm giving it a whirl. He's no longer hiding under my desk when it comes out and generally I can get him to engage (no thundershirt) in under 2 minutes.
If that sounds like pittance - consider before that he couldn't do a normal training session, dremel or no, without a thundershirt on and that still usually involved a lot of avoidance/anxiety. The prozac is helping his anxiety quite a bit!
The next stage is to start flipping him on his back and reinforcing, then turning the dremel on and so on. Hopefully I'm doing this right and I won't have problems after this, his nails need weekly dremeling. He does a wonderful job of wearing down the backs, but his front nails have always grown insanely quickly.
The new puppy arrives in a week and a half! I find out sometime in the next few days which puppy is ours, then I leave on April 4th to pick him/her up. I expect to be doing a lot more blogging then as we adjust. On Thursday, I will start the DAP diffuser in the center of the house which will give him a week to get it in his system. I also plan on coming home and putting his shirt on before we meet the puppy. First greeting will be between a baby gate or a pen.
Depending on his reaction we might try some time outside together leashed.. it will depend on what help I can get from the roommate or my in laws. Mochi always does better with dogs outside, I think in part because he spent the majority of his time with his breeder outside.
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