He is smart, this is not just foster mom saying her foster boy is smart either. In the right environment where he feels safe he learns fast! He learned the cue "touch" in one session. Touch is where I offer my hand with the cue "touch" and he will touch my hand with his nose and get a treat. This has been a great game for him to learn that an opened hand means something good. In the beginning tries I had to modify my hand movement and position because just offering him a flat hand had him pancaking and he was clearly uncomfortable. I quickly changed up, slowed down, and BAM he got it and now will search for my hand to "touch" in most positions.
In talking with a fellow foster mom about Tim we both came to the conclusion that is was time to get Tim out and work on slowly socializing him to the real world outside the safety of his foster home with us and the walking trails we frequent where there is no one else but us and our dogs.
We decided to go to a small park near us, mid week, mid day, so that there would be minimal foot traffic and Tim could start to hear the noises of a small city and he could stretch his comfort zone in a safe and hopefully positive way.
Here is Tim walking with foster dad, nice tail position, nice ear position. He is doing great! |
You might want to turn the speakers down as there is wind noise on this video.
In this clip you can see Timken is not 100% sure about things, he zig zagz and his body language is not real comfortable but he is doing pretty good considering he has never been here and there were lots of noises he wasn't sure about, (train in the distance, cars, planes over head, kids playing in the parking lot etc...) You will see Tim balk part way in, this was because there was some loud noise of air pressure being released. He recovered quickly and moved on the sniff the cool red fire hydrant, then he gets some reassurance from Dave and then he moves on. I was super impressed with this!
So cool all the time and effort you guys put in for Tim. Can't wait to see him grow
ReplyDeleteThanks for following Tim! It is such a reward to see him come along in his confidence, always baby steps with him but then he surprises us with a leap now and then. He is a wonderful boy.
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