I am so frustrated. Walking her has become a complete nightmare. It's progressively getting worse every day. A few weeks ago she jumped on me during one of our walks. She also started lunging out of the blue. With each walk she does it more and more often.
Each of our walks has become shorter and shorter because I can no longer take all the jumping and lunging. Noelle, our dog trainer, believes it's because she's just very excited on our walks and to just keep praising and treating her when she's walking correctly. I think it's because she wants to go run free.
This morning we came across a man walking his chihuahua. Katie kept lunging and barking. I dragged her back home and I actually started crying on the way. It just felt hopeless, and I was so overwhelmed. When my husband came home from work, I told him that we were giving Katie away.
We had an appointment with Noelle this evening. I told her that Katie's not doing any better on the leash. She just reiterated the need to praise and treat. We reviewed what we've learned - sit, down, stay, heel. But Katie wasn't paying any attention to us, and it felt like this lesson, come, would be a bust since she was pretty much ignoring us. However, towards the end of the hour, Katie actually started listening and we were able to get her to come back and forth between us from each end of my backyard.
Go figure. Just when I'm ready to throw in the towel on this dog, she does something that flickers a spark of hope.
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