September 6, 2022 • 31 mins
On our second guest interview we get to talk to Emily, dog mom to Dolly, a rescue potcake from the Bahamas. She shares her story about adopting Dolly, the obstacles that they've faces along the way and what she has learned on their journey to get the where they are today.
From thinking that her dog was friendly with all dogs and people, to the realization that she is in fact selective with all dogs and people and how she manages her environments to keep Dolly safe, to trust Emily as a handler and is able to thrive with her new lifestyle.
Every reactivity journey looks different but there is also so much that we've been able to relate to and learn from each other.
Join my Facebook group for a community of reactive dog owners who are sharing their stories, providing support and encouragement, in a safe environment with absolutely zero shame or judgement. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1107741093406927
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to theSpicy Dog Mama Podcast. It's
episode seven and I'm your hostCassidy, dog mom to Rey my
stinky, reactive bully. I'msuper excited about this episode
because I got to have my secondguest interview! I chatted with
my friend Emily, who I met attraining earlier this year.
She's dog mom to Dolly a rescuefrom the Bahamas, or as we like
to call her (00:21):
The spicy Bahama Mama. She tells us about their
experience with reactivity, andhow they manage their day to day
to give Dolly her best and mostfulfilled life. Emily and Dolly
have been a huge part of mineand Reys growth that I've
mentioned in earlier episodes,from pack walks to structured
getaways, and just being asupportive and encouraging
friend has helped us so much onour journey. Reactivity does not
(00:45):
look the same for every dog. AndI think that we have so much
that we can learn from eachother as we share what we've
gone through where we'vestruggled and how we've overcome
it. So let's listen to Emily andDolly's story.
(01:13):
Why don't we start off with youjust explaining a bit about who
you are, a little bit aboutdolly and a brief intro to your
story.
All right, so I'm Emily. I'mworking from home as a software
engineer right now. So when Igot a job working from home, I
decided it would be the perfecttime to adopt a rescue dog.
(01:34):
Because I needed a co worker. Sowhat better co worker then a
Rescue? So December 2020, I gota rescue dog. Dolly is a street
dog from the Bahamas. She wasabout eight months old when I
got her. And it's been a wildride getting her.
I mean, if it's anything like myexperience getting Reese as a
rescue. Yeah, it's notnecessarily what you expect. But
(01:57):
first off, what made you decideto get a rescue.
So I'm not really sure why Idecided to go with the rescue.
It seems like the obviouschoice, or the most ethical way
to get a dog. But that wasbefore I knew that ethical
breeding was a thing. There aredefinitely ethical ways to get a
dog. But it just seemed like theobvious choice. There's lots of
(02:18):
dogs out there that need homes,and I wanted to get a dog a
home. So I decided to go with arescue dog. I felt comfortable
getting a dog that couldpotentially have some problems.
But I wasn't really educated onall the politics that go on in
the dog world with the differenttypes of training and breeds and
genetics and all that. So I kindof went in blind, had a lot to
(02:41):
learn and I hit the groundrunning with it: getting a
problem dog. But it all turnedout. I wouldn't change anything.
When you found Dolly, were youaware of some issues that she
might have?
No, not at all. So, her bio said'friendly with all dogs and all
people'. And after herdecompression stage and
(03:01):
everything she went through, itturns out she's selective with
all dogs and all people. So shewent through a lot of changes in
the first year that I had her.
We moved twice. And I thinkthose two moves were actually
transition periods for her. Thefirst move corresponded with her
first heat cycle, which I wasn'tat all prepared for since I was
(03:23):
told she was spayed. And goingthrough puberty kind of had some
changes, because I wasn'tprepared for her getting
attention from other dogs thatshe didn't necessarily want. She
was getting a lot of extraattention during that time. And
she had to stand up for herselfand tell those dogs to back down
(03:44):
because she wasn't interested inthe attention. And that was
before I realized I was the onewho needed to advocate for her.
So her first heat cycle, whichagain was the first time we
moved that I had her, that'swhen her dogs activity started
showing I started noticing shewasn't friendly with dogs. And
(04:05):
then later on down the road afew months later, we moved
again, a different environment.
So we live in a semi detachedunit, and I noticed she was
having some problems with hermale landlord. Whenever he would
walk by she'd kind of give a lowgrowl and she didn't want any
(04:26):
attention from him at all. Soyeah, her selectivity with men
was also something I had tolearn how to deal with.
Was it the same with women?
She's never had a problem with awoman. I'm not really sure why
So back to when you first gotDolly. So you said that she was
(04:46):
getting attention from otherdogs. Were you taking her out to
see other dogs? Was this just onwalks?
Oh yeah, we would go to the dogparks and she loved it. She
would have a blast running withthe other dog. And you know
that is or if men are just moreintimidating to her.
since it told me on her bio thatshe was friendly with all other
dogs, so I was like, Yeah, sure,why not go to a dog park. She
never actually had an issue inthe dog parks. The first issue
(05:08):
she had with dogs was actuallyon leash. There's off leash dogs
that rushed her while she was onleash; it was during her first
heat cycle and it was before Irealized she was in heat. So we
had about three really friendlyhappy go lucky Golden Retrievers
that came up and weresurrounding her. They were all
super interested in her and shejust kind of started to cower.
(05:28):
And I didn't know what to do, Ijust kind of stood there and let
it all play out. And eventually,she told them to back off, she
gave them a correction, and itworked, they all got out of her
space. So after that herreactivity started, she would
see another dog coming, shewould assume that dog is going
to invade her space, and shewould try to tell it
(05:50):
preemptively to back off. Soafter I realized I was the one
who needed to not let her havethose on leash interactions, her
reactivity died down a ton.
Because she's more selective.
She just doesn't want tointeract with everybody and
anybody. So now that we'veestablished the fact that she
doesn't have to, we can walk byother dogs and other people, no
(06:12):
problem.
That's so good. It's sounds alot like what I went through
with Reese, like, I wasn'tkeeping him away from the dogs.
I was letting other dogsapproach. Yeah, definitely one
of those learning processes forsure. Which is hard because your
dog can lose trust in you.
It was confusing for sure, forme, because I was letting her do
on-leash greetings prior to herheat cycle and she was fine. She
(06:35):
loved meeting other dogs. And arandom dog would walk by and be
like, Hey, can our dog say hi?
And they'd be like, Yeah, sure.
And we'd let them meet. And wenever had any problems. I was
super confused when we startedhaving problems. And then once I
realized what was actually goingon, that she was in heat, a lot
just kind of clicked in mybrain. And from that point
forward, I think we reallystarted progressing. I started
(06:57):
learning about her, and startedlistening to what she actually
needed. And after that, thingsgot a lot better.
Did you seek any guidance duringthat process when she was
reacting?
I honestly didn't really receiveany guidance until her
selectivity with men startedshowing because that, for me,
was the problem I felt needed tobe addressed. So I honestly
(07:20):
didn't do a whole lot oftraining to socialize her with
other dogs properly, I justaccepted, maybe she doesn't like
all other dogs. And then whenshe started growling at my
landlord, I was like, Okay,we're not having any of this. I
don't want to get kicked out ofmy apartment, because they think
my dog isn't friendly. So that'swhen we sought out a private
(07:41):
trainer. And they taught me howto socialize her properly.
So it wasn't so much the dogselective that you were getting
a trainer for, it's more so thefear towards people?
Yes, I wanted to learn how tomanage the people selectivity.
And then, as a byproduct ofthat, socializing her with other
dogs happened at group class.
And as you know, we met and westarted socializing our dog. So
(08:05):
she's come a really long waysince I started. I'm honestly
not sure if I would have reachedout to a trainer for her dog's
selectivity, because I justaccepted the fact that maybe she
didn't like dogs. I'm reallyglad now that I've taken the
steps to start socializingproperly with other dogs.
Because she actually does havefun. She loves running around
(08:25):
with her dogs that she knows.
And she wouldn't have gottenthat opportunity if I didn't go
seek out a professional trainerto help with her human
Selectivity. So I'm, in a way,I'm glad it happened. I'm glad I
had to go to a professionaltrainer. So she's living your
best life now?
She's doing great. And you wereokay with the fact that she
(08:47):
maybe wouldn't socialize withdogs ever. And you were gonna
work with her outside of that,but it is so nice to see now
that she does still want to playwith dogs and run with dogs.
Yeah. And she wouldn't have gotthat opportunity if she never
had the issue with people. SoI'm really glad that it
happened.
Yeah, not necessarily going totake her to the dog park to meet
all the dogs there.
(09:09):
No, we won't be doing thatagain. And I mean, after I
realized that she actually didenjoy socializing with other
dogs. I signed up for thePlayful Paws Program. I think
you might have shared it on herebefore. So that was really great
for her. It's a specializeddaycare program that has a
(09:29):
handler one on one with a dog toteach them how to interact with
the rest of the pack and teachher that she could play with
other dogs. So it was reallynice seeing videos of her during
that program where she wasrunning and playing with dogs
Yea that's so helpful for you,just to give you that
she had just met.
confidence. What would a properintroduction look like for
Dolly, with both dogs and thenyou can also touch on a proper
(09:52):
introduction with people.
So socializing her with otherdogs for us looks like parallel
walking. So we don't let thedogs interact with each other
directly, there's no contact. Sofor a brand new dog she's never
socialized with before, she canbe within a few feet of them.
And as long as that dog isn'treacting, she's fine to just
carry on the walk and you know,get used to each other's
(10:14):
presence. Most dogs she honestlydoesn't care about. And that's
both good and bad. It onlybecomes a problem if there's a
dog she's not interested in,that is interested in her, and
then she will correct them totell them to get out of her
space. But if she's interestedin the other dog, and they're
interested in her, she'llusually just start a play
(10:36):
session with them.
Yeah. And I think we've seenthat specifically with Rey and
Dolly. I think Rey is justbegging for Dolly's attention.
And so yeah, they're not thereyet. But that's okay.
I mean, all they need to do isexist neutrally with each other.
And we'll both be thrilled withthat, which they pretty much
already do with each other,which is great.
(10:59):
Exactly. If they're not theperfect pair for each other,
that's okay, too. So Dolly isfine with women introductions,
but if you wanted to introduceher to male in your life, how
would you do that?
It looks different depending onif were on our property or in
our apartment, or if we're outin public. Out in public, she
(11:21):
doesn't really care. If a manwere to want to pet her, she
would tolerate it, she wouldprobably just stand there, she
wouldn't necessarily enjoy it.
So I wouldn't actually getpermission for a random man to
pet her. But on our property inour apartment, she has a really
solid place command. So whensomeone new is coming to the
apartment, I'll put her in theplace command. And she'll stay
(11:42):
there while they come into ourapartment. And I'll ask him not
to interact with her at all,just to basically ignore her and
pretend she's not even there.
And this is actually really easyfor her to do, which I thought
would be hard to get her to stayin place when a big scary man
comes into her apartment. But itturns out, she feels safe there,
(12:06):
she would rather not have tointeract with them at all. And
as long as they ignore her, shewill just ignore them. And once
she's relaxed, and she realizesthey're not a threat, then we
can start building arelationship between them. So
usually that involves lots oftreats, because she's a very
food motivated girl. And thenafter she learns that new people
(12:27):
mean she gets lots of treats,she's usually fine after that.
That's incredible. Becausegetting them to hold the place
command with somebody coming inis a different story. And I had
two different dogs, Reese whowas fearful of strangers, and
then Rey who's pumped aboutevery human that exists, it's
(12:47):
hard to keep her to stay,because she just wants to say
hi. But for Reese, he's afraid,his motivation is more 'I want
to get them out of the house'.
So it was really hard to teachthat one. But for Dolly, it's
amazing that she keeps thatstay. But she also knows that
the safe space for her to be aswell.
And it took me a while torealize the value in the
placement as well. Because whenI went to our private trainer,
(13:12):
that's what they were teachingus, that was their solution for
dealing with her selectivitytowards men. And I was like,
Okay, that's great. But I wanther to be okay with men. And I
thought our training processwould involve her meeting a
bunch of men and learning thatthey're not scary. And after she
realizes they're not scary, thenshe'll just magically be cured.
But it turns out, that's notquite how training goes for
(13:34):
these types of things. So afterI realized that she actually did
want to stay in place, and shedidn't want anything to do with
the people coming in ourapartment. That's when it all
started to click for me thatshe's always going to have a
little bit of doubt aboutstrange people. And that's not
something I'm ever going to beable to cure her of, I thought
(13:55):
that she would just be afriendly dog after I finished
training. And it turns out, thetraining is a lifelong thing for
this type of selectivity. Butit's really nice to be able to
have her tucked out of the waywhen new people are coming in
the apartments because I wanteda friendly dog that would just
be jumping all over peoplesaying hi wagging his tail, all
(14:17):
that type of thing. So it's verystressful watching her to make
sure she is going to stay inplace and she's not going to
break the command. But yeah,it's kind of nice just having
her chill and quiet.
Well, most people with the superfriendly dogs, they're trying to
teach them how not to Jump allover their guests. On my last
(14:46):
episode, my dog isn't social andthat's okay. I mostly, well, I
was completely talking aboutsocial with other dogs, but I
think it's also super importantto talk about how they're not
social with other peoplenecessarily or other men. And
that's also okay.
And that was a huge realizationfor me. Because I thought dog
(15:07):
training was either a dog wastrained or they're not trained,
I have a background in software.
So my whole world is true andfalse. So I think I went into
the dog training with the samementality. So you know, when I
got Dolly I was YouTubing dogtraining videos, and I think the
first thing I was trying toteach her was loose leash
walking. So I YouTubed, looseleash walking. And the first two
(15:31):
videos were completely differenttechniques. And I was like, What
is going on here? There's notjust one way to train your dog?
And this is before I evenrealized there's different
methodologies in training. Sothat was a big realization for
me that I had to find thetraining method that worked not
only for me, that I understand,but worked for Dolly.
(15:55):
Her leash walking is incredible.
That was one of the first thingsthat I noticed about her was
that she walks so well on leashand I remember you had said that
when you first got her, that wasone of the biggest areas that
you focused on.
Yeah, she had no concept of whata leash was when I got her. So
that was, you know, I thoughtthat was all the training she
was going to need was looseleash walking. So that's like, I
(16:18):
put all my energy into that.
Hey, it's definitely not a badthing.
And we definitely went through aphase where her loose leash
walking was non existent tooafter she was spayed. Her
mindset about everythingchanged. She was just so much
more excited about the world. Soshe would want to go smell
everything. And she would seedogs that she was familiar with.
(16:39):
And she would get excited to seethat. And so it was a journey to
get her back to a nice heel/leash walk. But everything
started to even out now. So it'sbeen a few months, it's been
good.
Do you wish that you had've donesomething or anything
differently when you had firstgotten Dolly.
So when I got Dolly, she was onbedrest due to heart worm
(17:00):
treatment. So that was anotherbarrier we had to do with not a
lot of exercise. So we weredoing a lot of obedience
training in the house, trying tokeep her mind busy, with little
games and whatnot. So I think wereally established a pretty good
relationship, especially thefirst month that I had her. So I
(17:21):
don't think I would have changedthat at all. I think it worked
out in our favor that we had alittle bit of downtime to really
build that relationship before Itook her out into the big scary
world. So she got reallycomfortable in our apartment,
and she learned she could trustme and then took her outside and
started introducing her to newthings. I'm sure I would have
(17:44):
taken it so slowly if she wasn'ton bedrest, that really slowed
down her decompression period,which is honestly probably best
for her relationship that shehas with me, which is really
important part of our trainingis that she trusts me, and that
I can lead her into unfamiliarscenarios and that she knows
(18:05):
she's going to be safe if I'mthere.
So if you were to get anotherrescue, you would kind of do the
I definitely would, I would takethe same approach. Of course, it
same thing.
depends on the dog maybe. Butfor sure, I would take it a lot
slower with any rescue dog thanI was planning to do with Dolly
if she hadn't been on bedrest.
(18:26):
I think that there's so muchthat you need to know about
rescuing a dog that isn'tnecessarily out there when you
do it. I know when I broughtReese home, I didn't know about
the decompression period. And Idefinitely just brought him
right into the world. It's nicethat you were forced to do that
and build that relationship withher. And now you know, if you
were to get another rescue, howyou would approach it as well.
(18:49):
And another thing I would havedone differently is no dog parks
and no leash greetings. Eventhough I don't think those
things directly contributed toher reactivity today, I realize
that there's a lot of potentialfor something to have gone
wrong.
So when she went through herheat and you were moving and you
(19:09):
started noticing reactivity orher behavior changing, did you
kind of have to go through trialand error to figure out how to
help her through that.
So I realized that she justdidn't want to interact with
other dogs when she startedbeing reactive towards dogs. So
if another dog was coming ourway on the street, I would just
(19:30):
make space and we would keepwalking. And everything would
usually be fine. You know, shemight bark or lunge a little
bit, but her reactions werenever severe. They weren't
scary. But for the time being, Ijust accepted that she wasn't
friendly with dogs.
So for you it wasn't so muchabout training her or teaching a
(19:53):
new behavior but just insteadchanging the situation or the
environment that she was in.
Yeah, exactly. I think she'sdefinitely living a fuller life
now that I can take her intoscenarios with other dogs. It's
been great.
Yeah. Throughout all of this,and when you started socializing
her with other dogs, when didyou incorporate a muzzle into
(20:14):
that?
Good question. I'm gonna bringup another fun fact about Dolly.
She absolutely loves dirt. Ifyou gave her a cheeseburger and
a bowl of dirt, she's beeliningit towards the bowl of dirt. So
that was part of my motivationfor starting to muzzle train
her, which I didn't evenconsider until I had friends
(20:39):
with muzzled dogs. And Irealized the value the muzzle
can have. I was scared eventhough I wanted to muzzle her to
prevent her from eating dirt. Iwas scared of the stigma that
people would see my muscle dog.
And you know, they would thinkshe's really aggressive that
she's a bad dog. And I justdidn't want to do it. But then
after, like I said, I met youguys, and you have muzzled dogs.
(20:59):
I was like, okay, that's not abig deal. I'm gonna do that too.
And, you know, it's probably50/50, 50% of the reason she's
muzzled is for eating dirt andthe other 50% is for socializing
with other dogs, I can put herin scenarios that I would have
been terrified to put her andeven though she was ready for
(21:20):
the scenarios, with the muzzlesthere as an extra safety net, it
just gives you a lot ofconfidence to be able to help
her live her best life.
Absolutely. People will say whenthey see a dog with a muzzle,
why don't you just train yourdog? It's like, well, this is me
training my dog. And if youbelieve that your dog can feel
(21:40):
how you're feeling, if you'refeeling it that much more
confident. I think that it'llhelp them feel more confident as
well.
I think that all dogs I havegoing forward, I'll probably
muzzle train them, whether it'sjust another type of training,
you know, to mentally stimulatethem. For whatever reason, I
think it's a good tool to have.
It definitely is, yeah.
It gives you the confidence asan owner that you're doing
(22:03):
absolutely everything you can toensure a good outcome. So I
think my perception of muzzledogs has completely changed. A
year ago, I would probably see amuzzled dog and I might judge
them. As opposed to today. I'm100 times more comfortable in a
(22:24):
group of muzzled reactive dogs,then I would be in a group of
really friendly happy go luckydogs.
So what is a big win that youand Dolly have had?
We've had all types of big winsrecently, she surprised me by
going into the water. She caughtme completely off guard and just
(22:45):
waltzed in the water. And Itried so hard to get her to just
put a foot in prior to this. SoI had just given up thinking
that she would never be a waterdog and she would never enjoy
playing. But we were on a packwalk a few weeks ago. And Rey
and Archer and all the otherdogs there were in the water and
she just walked in, like it wasno big deal. And she had been
(23:08):
doing it all her life. And itjust makes me so happy to see
her learning that there's somuch more to the world. And she
doesn't have to be afraid ofthings. It was just really
rewarding to see her be thatconfident and doing something
new that she'd never donebefore.
Do you think she would have doneit if the other dogs weren't
there?
(23:28):
I don't think so.
Do you think the pack mentalityor just seeing other dogs behave
a certain way helps her in otherareas as well? Is she more or
less reactive? When she's withother dogs?
I think so. So dolly actuallyspent a lot of time living in a
huge pack when she was .in theshelter in the Bahamas. I have
videos of her with probably 50to 60 other dogs. So I think she
(23:52):
was used to just being neutralaround other dogs. So when she's
in a pack of dogs she trust andthey're all neutral towards her.
I think that's when she'sprobably her happiest.
Well that's pretty good. If shewas in a group of dogs that were
not so neutral, would she feeldifferently? Would she want to
leave or try to justYes, she she would be the dog
(24:13):
that wants to take charge. Ifshe was in group of unruly dogs,
she would 100% be the one takingcharge of them. I have no doubts
about that.
Was there ever a time that youdid try to get a male to say hi
to her?
(24:34):
Not really. So usually when anew person comes in her
apartment, and she learns thatthey're not a threat to her,
she'll just go to bed. But wehad someone come in and she was
actually seeking attention fromthem, which was awesome for me
to see. She does this littlething where she'll tuck her head
under your hand and kind ofthrow it back to get your hand
(24:56):
on her head and she was doingthat to him. And I was like Oh
my god, she actually wants himto pet her what what's happening
right now, so that she wasseeking out attention from
someone she had just met, itblew me away. It was just like
when she went in the water thatcame out of nowhere that she
surprised me that she had theconfidence to do something like
that.
(25:17):
I had Reese who was superfearful of people. So having Rey
who loves people so much, it'sreally a battle. Because I love
that she loves people. Sotraining her to be calm is like,
okay, but I also love how muchshe loves. With Dolky you
expected to have the dog thatwas super friendly jumping on
people as they come in. Andwould you kind of feel that as
well, if they're so excited tosay hi to your guests? Like, how
(25:40):
do you tell them to stay onplace?
I can totally relate to whatyou're saying. If I have another
dog in the future, who justloves people, I'll probably just
be so relieved that I don't haveto be worried about safety. And
even with Dolly, theres the fewpeople that she really likes,
AKA Archers mom, the meatballlady, she'll jump up on her
(26:03):
occasionally. And I know Ishould start training her not to
jump on the meatball lady, butit just makes me so happy that
she's so excited to see her. AndI really haven't gotten to the
point yet where I've startedcorrecting her for that kind of
behavior, because it's just sonice to see her have the
confidence that meatball lady'snot going to hurt me. I love
(26:24):
meatball lady!That's one of the things that we
learned at Mango Dogs was that,you know, pick your battles with
Reys reactivity. Do I want towork on her reacting? Or do I
want to work on her heel? Ifshe's pulling, but not reacting?
Can I live with that? Sosimilarly, like okay, Dolly's
(26:46):
jumping on people, but she'shappy to see them. So we're
gonna let that one slide. Sowhat do you feel is the biggest
boundary or obstacle in yourjourney with Dolly?
The biggest boundary woulddefinitely be myself and my lack
of knowledge of dog trainingprior to getting her. Like I
(27:07):
said, I hit the ground runningwith it. But if I had a plan for
socializing her properly withdogs from the get go, and
knowing that I'm a quiet person,I have a quiet apartment. I
might have had more peoplecoming and going when I got her
just so she knows that that'ssomething that happens that
(27:27):
strange people come into theapartment, and nothing bad
happens from it. Again, there'sa pandemic.
Definitely a big obstacle. Whatis your biggest takeaway from
owning Dolly from when you firstgot her to now, a piece of
advice that you might pass on tosomebody else, either getting a
(27:49):
rescue or ending up with areactive dog or just getting a
puppy?
My advice would be to just trynot to have too strict
expectations for what your lifewith your dog is going to look
like. Especially with a rescueand you just never know what
you're going to end up with. Youdon't know the dog's background.
And so you might need to makeadjustments to your life in
(28:11):
order to let your dog live theirbest life. And what you think is
the best life for them might notbe the life they want. You just
have to do everything we can togive them the life that they
want and the life they'recomfortable with.
Well, thank you so much to Emilyfor taking the time to talk with
(28:32):
me about her story so far withDolly. It has honestly been a
pleasure getting to know themboth and so rewarding to watch
their progress. Dolly is such anincredible girl. And where there
are so many similarities andareas that we relate to each
other. We are still on such adifferent journey. And our dogs
require different management tohelp them with their reactivity.
(28:54):
And this really allows us tolearn from one another. I'm so
beyond thankful that our pathshave crossed and that we've been
able to train our dogs together.
Again, it has been so helpfuland encouraging for me and Rey.
I hope that if you are on asimilar journey with your dog
working through reactivity, thatyou have a community or friends
that you're able to train withor just to have people that you
can talk to who understand whatyou're going through and can
(29:17):
provide some hope orencouragement. This is why we
started the Facebook groupbalancing reactivity Canadian
dogs, for owners to have a safeplace to share their stories,
ask questions and encourageothers and to find people nearby
that they can train with. I'llput a link into the description
if you'd like to check that out.
(29:39):
Next week's episode, I'm goingto be talking about my
reactivity journey. No notReeses, not Reys. Mine. I've
mentioned it before in otherepisodes that I just may be more
reactive than my dog. Or atleast I used to be, hense the
Spicy Dog Mama. I want to sharehow I used to react to other
dogs and people and how I had tolearn and grow in that area, so
(30:01):
that I was able to be a calmhandler and a guide for my dogs
to help them. As always, if youenjoyed this episode, please
like rate review, make sure thatyou're subscribed or following,
however your streaming platformworks. I'd also love to hear
your feedback. Reach out onInstagram @spicydogmama or you
can send me an emailspicydogmama@gmail.com. And you
(30:24):
can always follow Rey on herjourney @mylittlepibble. You can
also check out the blogreesesnpieces.com. I post the
podcast episodes there withphotos, but I also have other
posts on there that you cancheck out too. Thank you so much
for listening. I hope that youhave an incredible week. You are
doing amazing.
Hello and welcome back to theSpicy Dog Mama Podcast. It's
episode seven and I'm your hostCassidy, dog mom to Rey my
stinky, reactive bully. I'msuper excited about this episode
because I got to have my secondguest interview! I chatted with
my friend Emily, who I met attraining earlier this year.
She's dog mom to Dolly a rescuefrom the Bahamas, or as we like
to call her (00:21):
The spicy Bahama Mama. She tells us about their
experience with reactivity, andhow they manage their day to day
to give Dolly her best and mostfulfilled life. Emily and Dolly
have been a huge part of mineand Reys growth that I've
mentioned in earlier episodes,from pack walks to structured
getaways, and just being asupportive and encouraging
friend has helped us so much onour journey. Reactivity does not
(00:45):
look the same for every dog. AndI think that we have so much
that we can learn from eachother as we share what we've
gone through where we'vestruggled and how we've overcome
it. So let's listen to Emily andDolly's story.
(01:13):
Why don't we start off with youjust explaining a bit about who
you are, a little bit aboutdolly and a brief intro to your
story.
All right, so I'm Emily. I'mworking from home as a software
engineer right now. So when Igot a job working from home, I
decided it would be the perfecttime to adopt a rescue dog.
(01:34):
Because I needed a co worker. Sowhat better co worker then a
Rescue? So December 2020, I gota rescue dog. Dolly is a street
dog from the Bahamas. She wasabout eight months old when I
got her. And it's been a wildride getting her.
I mean, if it's anything like myexperience getting Reese as a
rescue. Yeah, it's notnecessarily what you expect. But
(01:57):
first off, what made you decideto get a rescue.
So I'm not really sure why Idecided to go with the rescue.
It seems like the obviouschoice, or the most ethical way
to get a dog. But that wasbefore I knew that ethical
breeding was a thing. There aredefinitely ethical ways to get a
dog. But it just seemed like theobvious choice. There's lots of
(02:18):
dogs out there that need homes,and I wanted to get a dog a
home. So I decided to go with arescue dog. I felt comfortable
getting a dog that couldpotentially have some problems.
But I wasn't really educated onall the politics that go on in
the dog world with the differenttypes of training and breeds and
genetics and all that. So I kindof went in blind, had a lot to
(02:41):
learn and I hit the groundrunning with it: getting a
problem dog. But it all turnedout. I wouldn't change anything.
When you found Dolly, were youaware of some issues that she
might have?
No, not at all. So, her bio said'friendly with all dogs and all
people'. And after herdecompression stage and
(03:01):
everything she went through, itturns out she's selective with
all dogs and all people. So shewent through a lot of changes in
the first year that I had her.
We moved twice. And I thinkthose two moves were actually
transition periods for her. Thefirst move corresponded with her
first heat cycle, which I wasn'tat all prepared for since I was
(03:23):
told she was spayed. And goingthrough puberty kind of had some
changes, because I wasn'tprepared for her getting
attention from other dogs thatshe didn't necessarily want. She
was getting a lot of extraattention during that time. And
she had to stand up for herselfand tell those dogs to back down
(03:44):
because she wasn't interested inthe attention. And that was
before I realized I was the onewho needed to advocate for her.
So her first heat cycle, whichagain was the first time we
moved that I had her, that'swhen her dogs activity started
showing I started noticing shewasn't friendly with dogs. And
(04:05):
then later on down the road afew months later, we moved
again, a different environment.
So we live in a semi detachedunit, and I noticed she was
having some problems with hermale landlord. Whenever he would
walk by she'd kind of give a lowgrowl and she didn't want any
(04:26):
attention from him at all. Soyeah, her selectivity with men
was also something I had tolearn how to deal with.
Was it the same with women?
She's never had a problem with awoman. I'm not really sure why
So back to when you first gotDolly. So you said that she was
(04:46):
getting attention from otherdogs. Were you taking her out to
see other dogs? Was this just onwalks?
Oh yeah, we would go to the dogparks and she loved it. She
would have a blast running withthe other dog. And you know
that is or if men are just moreintimidating to her.
since it told me on her bio thatshe was friendly with all other
dogs, so I was like, Yeah, sure,why not go to a dog park. She
never actually had an issue inthe dog parks. The first issue
(05:08):
she had with dogs was actuallyon leash. There's off leash dogs
that rushed her while she was onleash; it was during her first
heat cycle and it was before Irealized she was in heat. So we
had about three really friendlyhappy go lucky Golden Retrievers
that came up and weresurrounding her. They were all
super interested in her and shejust kind of started to cower.
(05:28):
And I didn't know what to do, Ijust kind of stood there and let
it all play out. And eventually,she told them to back off, she
gave them a correction, and itworked, they all got out of her
space. So after that herreactivity started, she would
see another dog coming, shewould assume that dog is going
to invade her space, and shewould try to tell it
(05:50):
preemptively to back off. Soafter I realized I was the one
who needed to not let her havethose on leash interactions, her
reactivity died down a ton.
Because she's more selective.
She just doesn't want tointeract with everybody and
anybody. So now that we'veestablished the fact that she
doesn't have to, we can walk byother dogs and other people, no
(06:12):
problem.
That's so good. It's sounds alot like what I went through
with Reese, like, I wasn'tkeeping him away from the dogs.
I was letting other dogsapproach. Yeah, definitely one
of those learning processes forsure. Which is hard because your
dog can lose trust in you.
It was confusing for sure, forme, because I was letting her do
on-leash greetings prior to herheat cycle and she was fine. She
(06:35):
loved meeting other dogs. And arandom dog would walk by and be
like, Hey, can our dog say hi?
And they'd be like, Yeah, sure.
And we'd let them meet. And wenever had any problems. I was
super confused when we startedhaving problems. And then once I
realized what was actually goingon, that she was in heat, a lot
just kind of clicked in mybrain. And from that point
forward, I think we reallystarted progressing. I started
(06:57):
learning about her, and startedlistening to what she actually
needed. And after that, thingsgot a lot better.
Did you seek any guidance duringthat process when she was
reacting?
I honestly didn't really receiveany guidance until her
selectivity with men startedshowing because that, for me,
was the problem I felt needed tobe addressed. So I honestly
(07:20):
didn't do a whole lot oftraining to socialize her with
other dogs properly, I justaccepted, maybe she doesn't like
all other dogs. And then whenshe started growling at my
landlord, I was like, Okay,we're not having any of this. I
don't want to get kicked out ofmy apartment, because they think
my dog isn't friendly. So that'swhen we sought out a private
(07:41):
trainer. And they taught me howto socialize her properly.
So it wasn't so much the dogselective that you were getting
a trainer for, it's more so thefear towards people?
Yes, I wanted to learn how tomanage the people selectivity.
And then, as a byproduct ofthat, socializing her with other
dogs happened at group class.
And as you know, we met and westarted socializing our dog. So
(08:05):
she's come a really long waysince I started. I'm honestly
not sure if I would have reachedout to a trainer for her dog's
selectivity, because I justaccepted the fact that maybe she
didn't like dogs. I'm reallyglad now that I've taken the
steps to start socializingproperly with other dogs.
Because she actually does havefun. She loves running around
(08:25):
with her dogs that she knows.
And she wouldn't have gottenthat opportunity if I didn't go
seek out a professional trainerto help with her human
Selectivity. So I'm, in a way,I'm glad it happened. I'm glad I
had to go to a professionaltrainer. So she's living your
best life now?
She's doing great. And you wereokay with the fact that she
(08:47):
maybe wouldn't socialize withdogs ever. And you were gonna
work with her outside of that,but it is so nice to see now
that she does still want to playwith dogs and run with dogs.
Yeah. And she wouldn't have gotthat opportunity if she never
had the issue with people. SoI'm really glad that it
happened.
Yeah, not necessarily going totake her to the dog park to meet
all the dogs there.
(09:09):
No, we won't be doing thatagain. And I mean, after I
realized that she actually didenjoy socializing with other
dogs. I signed up for thePlayful Paws Program. I think
you might have shared it on herebefore. So that was really great
for her. It's a specializeddaycare program that has a
(09:29):
handler one on one with a dog toteach them how to interact with
the rest of the pack and teachher that she could play with
other dogs. So it was reallynice seeing videos of her during
that program where she wasrunning and playing with dogs
Yea that's so helpful for you,just to give you that
she had just met.
confidence. What would a properintroduction look like for
Dolly, with both dogs and thenyou can also touch on a proper
(09:52):
introduction with people.
So socializing her with otherdogs for us looks like parallel
walking. So we don't let thedogs interact with each other
directly, there's no contact. Sofor a brand new dog she's never
socialized with before, she canbe within a few feet of them.
And as long as that dog isn'treacting, she's fine to just
carry on the walk and you know,get used to each other's
(10:14):
presence. Most dogs she honestlydoesn't care about. And that's
both good and bad. It onlybecomes a problem if there's a
dog she's not interested in,that is interested in her, and
then she will correct them totell them to get out of her
space. But if she's interestedin the other dog, and they're
interested in her, she'llusually just start a play
(10:36):
session with them.
Yeah. And I think we've seenthat specifically with Rey and
Dolly. I think Rey is justbegging for Dolly's attention.
And so yeah, they're not thereyet. But that's okay.
I mean, all they need to do isexist neutrally with each other.
And we'll both be thrilled withthat, which they pretty much
already do with each other,which is great.
(10:59):
Exactly. If they're not theperfect pair for each other,
that's okay, too. So Dolly isfine with women introductions,
but if you wanted to introduceher to male in your life, how
would you do that?
It looks different depending onif were on our property or in
our apartment, or if we're outin public. Out in public, she
(11:21):
doesn't really care. If a manwere to want to pet her, she
would tolerate it, she wouldprobably just stand there, she
wouldn't necessarily enjoy it.
So I wouldn't actually getpermission for a random man to
pet her. But on our property inour apartment, she has a really
solid place command. So whensomeone new is coming to the
apartment, I'll put her in theplace command. And she'll stay
(11:42):
there while they come into ourapartment. And I'll ask him not
to interact with her at all,just to basically ignore her and
pretend she's not even there.
And this is actually really easyfor her to do, which I thought
would be hard to get her to stayin place when a big scary man
comes into her apartment. But itturns out, she feels safe there,
(12:06):
she would rather not have tointeract with them at all. And
as long as they ignore her, shewill just ignore them. And once
she's relaxed, and she realizesthey're not a threat, then we
can start building arelationship between them. So
usually that involves lots oftreats, because she's a very
food motivated girl. And thenafter she learns that new people
(12:27):
mean she gets lots of treats,she's usually fine after that.
That's incredible. Becausegetting them to hold the place
command with somebody coming inis a different story. And I had
two different dogs, Reese whowas fearful of strangers, and
then Rey who's pumped aboutevery human that exists, it's
(12:47):
hard to keep her to stay,because she just wants to say
hi. But for Reese, he's afraid,his motivation is more 'I want
to get them out of the house'.
So it was really hard to teachthat one. But for Dolly, it's
amazing that she keeps thatstay. But she also knows that
the safe space for her to be aswell.
And it took me a while torealize the value in the
placement as well. Because whenI went to our private trainer,
(13:12):
that's what they were teachingus, that was their solution for
dealing with her selectivitytowards men. And I was like,
Okay, that's great. But I wanther to be okay with men. And I
thought our training processwould involve her meeting a
bunch of men and learning thatthey're not scary. And after she
realizes they're not scary, thenshe'll just magically be cured.
But it turns out, that's notquite how training goes for
(13:34):
these types of things. So afterI realized that she actually did
want to stay in place, and shedidn't want anything to do with
the people coming in ourapartment. That's when it all
started to click for me thatshe's always going to have a
little bit of doubt aboutstrange people. And that's not
something I'm ever going to beable to cure her of, I thought
(13:55):
that she would just be afriendly dog after I finished
training. And it turns out, thetraining is a lifelong thing for
this type of selectivity. Butit's really nice to be able to
have her tucked out of the waywhen new people are coming in
the apartments because I wanteda friendly dog that would just
be jumping all over peoplesaying hi wagging his tail, all
(14:17):
that type of thing. So it's verystressful watching her to make
sure she is going to stay inplace and she's not going to
break the command. But yeah,it's kind of nice just having
her chill and quiet.
Well, most people with the superfriendly dogs, they're trying to
teach them how not to Jump allover their guests. On my last
(14:46):
episode, my dog isn't social andthat's okay. I mostly, well, I
was completely talking aboutsocial with other dogs, but I
think it's also super importantto talk about how they're not
social with other peoplenecessarily or other men. And
that's also okay.
And that was a huge realizationfor me. Because I thought dog
(15:07):
training was either a dog wastrained or they're not trained,
I have a background in software.
So my whole world is true andfalse. So I think I went into
the dog training with the samementality. So you know, when I
got Dolly I was YouTubing dogtraining videos, and I think the
first thing I was trying toteach her was loose leash
walking. So I YouTubed, looseleash walking. And the first two
(15:31):
videos were completely differenttechniques. And I was like, What
is going on here? There's notjust one way to train your dog?
And this is before I evenrealized there's different
methodologies in training. Sothat was a big realization for
me that I had to find thetraining method that worked not
only for me, that I understand,but worked for Dolly.
(15:55):
Her leash walking is incredible.
That was one of the first thingsthat I noticed about her was
that she walks so well on leashand I remember you had said that
when you first got her, that wasone of the biggest areas that
you focused on.
Yeah, she had no concept of whata leash was when I got her. So
that was, you know, I thoughtthat was all the training she
was going to need was looseleash walking. So that's like, I
(16:18):
put all my energy into that.
Hey, it's definitely not a badthing.
And we definitely went through aphase where her loose leash
walking was non existent tooafter she was spayed. Her
mindset about everythingchanged. She was just so much
more excited about the world. Soshe would want to go smell
everything. And she would seedogs that she was familiar with.
(16:39):
And she would get excited to seethat. And so it was a journey to
get her back to a nice heel/leash walk. But everything
started to even out now. So it'sbeen a few months, it's been
good.
Do you wish that you had've donesomething or anything
differently when you had firstgotten Dolly.
So when I got Dolly, she was onbedrest due to heart worm
(17:00):
treatment. So that was anotherbarrier we had to do with not a
lot of exercise. So we weredoing a lot of obedience
training in the house, trying tokeep her mind busy, with little
games and whatnot. So I think wereally established a pretty good
relationship, especially thefirst month that I had her. So I
(17:21):
don't think I would have changedthat at all. I think it worked
out in our favor that we had alittle bit of downtime to really
build that relationship before Itook her out into the big scary
world. So she got reallycomfortable in our apartment,
and she learned she could trustme and then took her outside and
started introducing her to newthings. I'm sure I would have
(17:44):
taken it so slowly if she wasn'ton bedrest, that really slowed
down her decompression period,which is honestly probably best
for her relationship that shehas with me, which is really
important part of our trainingis that she trusts me, and that
I can lead her into unfamiliarscenarios and that she knows
(18:05):
she's going to be safe if I'mthere.
So if you were to get anotherrescue, you would kind of do the
I definitely would, I would takethe same approach. Of course, it
same thing.
depends on the dog maybe. Butfor sure, I would take it a lot
slower with any rescue dog thanI was planning to do with Dolly
if she hadn't been on bedrest.
(18:26):
I think that there's so muchthat you need to know about
rescuing a dog that isn'tnecessarily out there when you
do it. I know when I broughtReese home, I didn't know about
the decompression period. And Idefinitely just brought him
right into the world. It's nicethat you were forced to do that
and build that relationship withher. And now you know, if you
were to get another rescue, howyou would approach it as well.
(18:49):
And another thing I would havedone differently is no dog parks
and no leash greetings. Eventhough I don't think those
things directly contributed toher reactivity today, I realize
that there's a lot of potentialfor something to have gone
wrong.
So when she went through herheat and you were moving and you
(19:09):
started noticing reactivity orher behavior changing, did you
kind of have to go through trialand error to figure out how to
help her through that.
So I realized that she justdidn't want to interact with
other dogs when she startedbeing reactive towards dogs. So
if another dog was coming ourway on the street, I would just
(19:30):
make space and we would keepwalking. And everything would
usually be fine. You know, shemight bark or lunge a little
bit, but her reactions werenever severe. They weren't
scary. But for the time being, Ijust accepted that she wasn't
friendly with dogs.
So for you it wasn't so muchabout training her or teaching a
(19:53):
new behavior but just insteadchanging the situation or the
environment that she was in.
Yeah, exactly. I think she'sdefinitely living a fuller life
now that I can take her intoscenarios with other dogs. It's
been great.
Yeah. Throughout all of this,and when you started socializing
her with other dogs, when didyou incorporate a muzzle into
(20:14):
that?
Good question. I'm gonna bringup another fun fact about Dolly.
She absolutely loves dirt. Ifyou gave her a cheeseburger and
a bowl of dirt, she's beeliningit towards the bowl of dirt. So
that was part of my motivationfor starting to muzzle train
her, which I didn't evenconsider until I had friends
(20:39):
with muzzled dogs. And Irealized the value the muzzle
can have. I was scared eventhough I wanted to muzzle her to
prevent her from eating dirt. Iwas scared of the stigma that
people would see my muscle dog.
And you know, they would thinkshe's really aggressive that
she's a bad dog. And I justdidn't want to do it. But then
after, like I said, I met youguys, and you have muzzled dogs.
(20:59):
I was like, okay, that's not abig deal. I'm gonna do that too.
And, you know, it's probably50/50, 50% of the reason she's
muzzled is for eating dirt andthe other 50% is for socializing
with other dogs, I can put herin scenarios that I would have
been terrified to put her andeven though she was ready for
(21:20):
the scenarios, with the muzzlesthere as an extra safety net, it
just gives you a lot ofconfidence to be able to help
her live her best life.
Absolutely. People will say whenthey see a dog with a muzzle,
why don't you just train yourdog? It's like, well, this is me
training my dog. And if youbelieve that your dog can feel
(21:40):
how you're feeling, if you'refeeling it that much more
confident. I think that it'llhelp them feel more confident as
well.
I think that all dogs I havegoing forward, I'll probably
muzzle train them, whether it'sjust another type of training,
you know, to mentally stimulatethem. For whatever reason, I
think it's a good tool to have.
It definitely is, yeah.
It gives you the confidence asan owner that you're doing
(22:03):
absolutely everything you can toensure a good outcome. So I
think my perception of muzzledogs has completely changed. A
year ago, I would probably see amuzzled dog and I might judge
them. As opposed to today. I'm100 times more comfortable in a
(22:24):
group of muzzled reactive dogs,then I would be in a group of
really friendly happy go luckydogs.
So what is a big win that youand Dolly have had?
We've had all types of big winsrecently, she surprised me by
going into the water. She caughtme completely off guard and just
(22:45):
waltzed in the water. And Itried so hard to get her to just
put a foot in prior to this. SoI had just given up thinking
that she would never be a waterdog and she would never enjoy
playing. But we were on a packwalk a few weeks ago. And Rey
and Archer and all the otherdogs there were in the water and
she just walked in, like it wasno big deal. And she had been
(23:08):
doing it all her life. And itjust makes me so happy to see
her learning that there's somuch more to the world. And she
doesn't have to be afraid ofthings. It was just really
rewarding to see her be thatconfident and doing something
new that she'd never donebefore.
Do you think she would have doneit if the other dogs weren't
there?
(23:28):
I don't think so.
Do you think the pack mentalityor just seeing other dogs behave
a certain way helps her in otherareas as well? Is she more or
less reactive? When she's withother dogs?
I think so. So dolly actuallyspent a lot of time living in a
huge pack when she was .in theshelter in the Bahamas. I have
videos of her with probably 50to 60 other dogs. So I think she
(23:52):
was used to just being neutralaround other dogs. So when she's
in a pack of dogs she trust andthey're all neutral towards her.
I think that's when she'sprobably her happiest.
Well that's pretty good. If shewas in a group of dogs that were
not so neutral, would she feeldifferently? Would she want to
leave or try to justYes, she she would be the dog
(24:13):
that wants to take charge. Ifshe was in group of unruly dogs,
she would 100% be the one takingcharge of them. I have no doubts
about that.
Was there ever a time that youdid try to get a male to say hi
to her?
(24:34):
Not really. So usually when anew person comes in her
apartment, and she learns thatthey're not a threat to her,
she'll just go to bed. But wehad someone come in and she was
actually seeking attention fromthem, which was awesome for me
to see. She does this littlething where she'll tuck her head
under your hand and kind ofthrow it back to get your hand
(24:56):
on her head and she was doingthat to him. And I was like Oh
my god, she actually wants himto pet her what what's happening
right now, so that she wasseeking out attention from
someone she had just met, itblew me away. It was just like
when she went in the water thatcame out of nowhere that she
surprised me that she had theconfidence to do something like
that.
(25:17):
I had Reese who was superfearful of people. So having Rey
who loves people so much, it'sreally a battle. Because I love
that she loves people. Sotraining her to be calm is like,
okay, but I also love how muchshe loves. With Dolky you
expected to have the dog thatwas super friendly jumping on
people as they come in. Andwould you kind of feel that as
well, if they're so excited tosay hi to your guests? Like, how
(25:40):
do you tell them to stay onplace?
I can totally relate to whatyou're saying. If I have another
dog in the future, who justloves people, I'll probably just
be so relieved that I don't haveto be worried about safety. And
even with Dolly, theres the fewpeople that she really likes,
AKA Archers mom, the meatballlady, she'll jump up on her
(26:03):
occasionally. And I know Ishould start training her not to
jump on the meatball lady, butit just makes me so happy that
she's so excited to see her. AndI really haven't gotten to the
point yet where I've startedcorrecting her for that kind of
behavior, because it's just sonice to see her have the
confidence that meatball lady'snot going to hurt me. I love
(26:24):
meatball lady!That's one of the things that we
learned at Mango Dogs was that,you know, pick your battles with
Reys reactivity. Do I want towork on her reacting? Or do I
want to work on her heel? Ifshe's pulling, but not reacting?
Can I live with that? Sosimilarly, like okay, Dolly's
(26:46):
jumping on people, but she'shappy to see them. So we're
gonna let that one slide. Sowhat do you feel is the biggest
boundary or obstacle in yourjourney with Dolly?
The biggest boundary woulddefinitely be myself and my lack
of knowledge of dog trainingprior to getting her. Like I
(27:07):
said, I hit the ground runningwith it. But if I had a plan for
socializing her properly withdogs from the get go, and
knowing that I'm a quiet person,I have a quiet apartment. I
might have had more peoplecoming and going when I got her
just so she knows that that'ssomething that happens that
(27:27):
strange people come into theapartment, and nothing bad
happens from it. Again, there'sa pandemic.
Definitely a big obstacle. Whatis your biggest takeaway from
owning Dolly from when you firstgot her to now, a piece of
advice that you might pass on tosomebody else, either getting a
(27:49):
rescue or ending up with areactive dog or just getting a
puppy?
My advice would be to just trynot to have too strict
expectations for what your lifewith your dog is going to look
like. Especially with a rescueand you just never know what
you're going to end up with. Youdon't know the dog's background.
And so you might need to makeadjustments to your life in
(28:11):
order to let your dog live theirbest life. And what you think is
the best life for them might notbe the life they want. You just
have to do everything we can togive them the life that they
want and the life they'recomfortable with.
Well, thank you so much to Emilyfor taking the time to talk with
(28:32):
me about her story so far withDolly. It has honestly been a
pleasure getting to know themboth and so rewarding to watch
their progress. Dolly is such anincredible girl. And where there
are so many similarities andareas that we relate to each
other. We are still on such adifferent journey. And our dogs
require different management tohelp them with their reactivity.
(28:54):
And this really allows us tolearn from one another. I'm so
beyond thankful that our pathshave crossed and that we've been
able to train our dogs together.
Again, it has been so helpfuland encouraging for me and Rey.
I hope that if you are on asimilar journey with your dog
working through reactivity, thatyou have a community or friends
that you're able to train withor just to have people that you
can talk to who understand whatyou're going through and can
(29:17):
provide some hope orencouragement. This is why we
started the Facebook groupbalancing reactivity Canadian
dogs, for owners to have a safeplace to share their stories,
ask questions and encourageothers and to find people nearby
that they can train with. I'llput a link into the description
if you'd like to check that out.
(29:39):
Next week's episode, I'm goingto be talking about my
reactivity journey. No notReeses, not Reys. Mine. I've
mentioned it before in otherepisodes that I just may be more
reactive than my dog. Or atleast I used to be, hense the
Spicy Dog Mama. I want to sharehow I used to react to other
dogs and people and how I had tolearn and grow in that area, so
(30:01):
that I was able to be a calmhandler and a guide for my dogs
to help them. As always, if youenjoyed this episode, please
like rate review, make sure thatyou're subscribed or following,
however your streaming platformworks. I'd also love to hear
your feedback. Reach out onInstagram @spicydogmama or you
can send me an emailspicydogmama@gmail.com. And you
(30:24):
can always follow Rey on herjourney @mylittlepibble. You can
also check out the blogreesesnpieces.com. I post the
podcast episodes there withphotos, but I also have other
posts on there that you cancheck out too. Thank you so much
for listening. I hope that youhave an incredible week. You are
doing amazing.
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