Tucker took an interest in a woman who was watching her kid play on the swings. He came up about 8 feet behind her before I stopped him and he laid down and tried to crawl over hoping I wouldn't notice. Tucker's odd like that, despite being scared of strangers he is SUPER interested in them right up until they become interested in him. It's actually a bit dangerous because he puts himself so close (he'll even put his front paws up on their legs) that when the stranger pays attention to him he is WAY over threshold.
The woman eventually noticed him and he sat up and cocked his head at her (and I started throwing chicken). We got talking about her two terriers and I told her I was working on his fear of strangers. I don't think she believed me because he was straining at the leash to go see her. She sat down and offered a hand which he didn't like so he startled came to me, no barking though which is good. She then just sat on the ground and left him alone as I tossed him treats for looking at the woman or moving towards her. He seemed really relaxed through the whole thing. She'd occasionally look at him so I rewarded for him tolerating that too. Usually any sort of acknowledgement from a stranger sets him off.
Her friend and husband eventually came over and I tossed him treats for looking at them as they walked around him. When her daughter started to come over we left, I don't want him too close to kids yet.
A little girl did want to pet him but didn't want to ask. She kept approaching us and then going somewhere else. Gave me lots of opportunities to reward him for staying calm though. Then we'd retreat so she never got too close for him. Eventually she starting coming too close and I told her he was shy and so she couldn't pet him. I gave him treats while she stood there and I talked to her. The little girl informed me that he liked her and started coming closer so I told her he would start barking if she tried to pet him, and I rewarded him for staying calm and then patted my thigh and told him to come with me as we moved away. He never got nervous through the whole interaction which is big for him, kids usually set him off just by approaching.
So overall a successful day for us, I'm proud of him. I think we will be able to make some good progress with adults. Not sure about kids as I don't want to risk letting him get too close to one. For now I'm not letting them interact with him at all and I'll stick to rewarding him while they ask to pet him and get rejected (yes, I'm a heart breaker).
In other news I'm training Tucker to pick up random things and give them to me. I started with his toy and now he can do keys. I tried to see if he'd do it with a clip (the ones that keep bags of food closed) and he just picked it up and tried to run off with it, so I'll have to try tying his toy to it like I did with the keys. I'm hoping this trick could actually be useful for my parents as they get older. I'm also thinking I can eventually use it to get him to put his toys away or put laundry in the laundry basket.
I'm also working on getting him to stop bothering Willie (cat) so much. There have been some improvements. I let him air snap and jump around like an idiot in front of the cat but stop him if he grabs him with his mouth and tries to slip him over (generally when they DO play Willie rolls onto his back and slaps him from there). Willie actually played with him twice this week and didn't stay on his back the whole time, he got up and chased Tucker a little which was nice to see. Tucker is responding to me when I tell him to stop but he still tries to start back up a few times before giving up. It's a habit that will take a while to break, Willie is his favorite toy.
He also took his first trip to the woods, I kept him on his long line and we practiced lots of the come command, he did really well, if I stopped moving for too long he'd run back to me to see what I was doing. Wouldn't try going in the water yet but it was kind of rainy and cold out so maybe when it's warmer.
So we're making progress, I'm going to bring him to the farmer's market downtown on Saturday and work on counter conditioning some more. I'm going to try to get him to the park at least twice a week, so in addition to the farmer's market every Saturday we should continue seeing him improve.
