... always makes me want to poke my eyes out. It was very disappointing to retire Reagan, but she developed noise phobias to common, unavoidable things and worst of all became terrified of riding in a vehicle (especially my van). This made daily training and traveling to trials nearly impossible. I tried everything (and you can read all about it by clicking on Reagan Fears if you wish to), but it continued to spiral out of control. The bright side is that Seven has worked out well as Reagan's agility replacement.... I would not have adopted Seven if Reagan had not retired.
Well, we are having some crazy winter weather this year. Temperatures have been very warm and we have had several thunderstorms. Due to Reagan's propensity towards developing noise phobias, we have always counter conditioned thunderstorms. Thunder = Treats. This has worked well and we employ this strategy with all of our younger greyhounds since it is common enough in greyhounds and usually takes a few years to develop. The downside is that it is labor intensive. An evening of thunderstorms can have you tossing treats periodically for hours.
So as an alternative, the first clap of thunder equals everyone going to their crates for frozen, stuffed Kongs and bully sticks for the duration of the storm. Well, Miss Reagan, although patient, still thinks she deserves a treat.
Spoiled brat!
