Understimulation

As quick as her food agression arised as quick it was gone again. The simple reason for this problem was hunger.... or better call it food unsecurity. Now we work everyday that she knows there will be enough food everyday - there is no need to protect it.

But what is a lot more important is our new training program.

Lisbeth has a stress problem I have realised this from the early beginning. She can only hardly cope with changing or new situations. Her stress level rises when she is in a new environment, when she is meeting strangers or other dogs. She loves to play with other dogs on the one hand but feels unsecure about unknown dogs. And sometimes she feels she has to show the other dog that she's the boss...
You can not take her with you when you are meeting friends or other dogs because her stresslevel rises and she is unable to relax. My strategy was to keep her away from every stress situation which means she has to stay home alone a lot. At the beginning this was the perfect solution and a lot of things get better. But after a while things was getting worse again. I've thought, that this was due to more stressful situations I exposed her on a regular basis. Therefore we reduced stressy situations again. I avoided any games that increased her arousal and I've tried to keep her calm most of the time. But there was something I had forgotten. Lisbeth is a young dog. Only two years old with a lot of energy. And even if you have to have look on her stress level she needs some "action" as well in her life. We have found a new area where Lisbeth can be off leash and she is almost perfect there. She is allowed to move freely and can do almost everything she wanna do and she rely loves it. She stays in contact with me most of the time and comes back when called. I try to make action in combination with some relaxation and it works quite fine. We do searching for treats, and Lisbeth can have a chew if she chooses to do so. She can run around, can chase birds or just sniff the track of the beaver. What is still impotant is that nothing else is happening in our walk. No strangers, no other dogs no other scary things.
The most important thing is that we are spending some time togehter and we are both enjoying it. There is no need to protect her form stress and Lisbeth is able to comunicate most of the time. There first thing what happens when stress level rises is tha Lisbeth is no longer able to take her treats. But this happens only rarely on this walks.
I also want to give her back doggy contact more regularly. But this is the most difficult part for me. We have a dog friend called Raviko, a 2 yeard old portuguesian water dog, but this is not the perfect friend for Lisbeth. She plays very rough with Raviko and she does not look very happy. But this might be also a reason of her higher stress level. We have to go to another place for walks with Raviko where are some other dogs and strangers around. A lot of unknown smells and so on. Lisbeth is not able to stay in contact with me, she is cannot eat her treats and she reacts on other dogs and strangers. Walks with Raviko are hard work for me as well. I do not enjoy this walks but I want to give it a try. We will meet on a regular basis, going always the same way take a lot of breaks and chews and I hope that she is going to enjoy this walks soon.
She is getting some food additives as well which should help her to relax.All the other things we are working I will tell about in the next post.