Socializing the Feral Dog Using A Facilitator Dog pt II

Did I tell you that in phase one; no treats?! In phase I, it’s best if you just spend a little time with the friendly dog, which gets really excited when you come into the room. Each time the dog is all about you.


Dogs know enough about each other for the feral to figure out that its buddy likes you. Most ferals will come out of the corner or comfort spot to re-gain buddy dog’s attention. Don’t panic if they do it doggy style. Obviously, you’re not using a friendly dog that is being dominated, etc.


Frequently, the first big signal we get of the feral building confidence is it trying to separate the friendly from us. It shows that they are longer so afraid that they won’t move while in your energy field.


Ferals will behavior will range from lip licking submissive to teeth snapping attempts to herd the friendly dog back with the feral. I don’t worry about the feral attacking my buddy dog. It takes just a move on our part to scare the feral back into hiding, so don’t move much. Call the buddy dog close to you, if you fear harm.


Comfortable that your feral isn’t a neurotic mess going to hurt your dog? Good. Your first real movement should be pedaling backwards away from the dogs while telling them how wonderful they are. Yes, you know the voice.


When you stop and the dogs stop, don’t move; at some point the feral will look in your eye. That sweet second when a frightened feral looks into your eyes, wow. Bonita looked like she thought she was going to be struck by lightning and then got all happy bouncing away. The blog posts about Bonita tell about our progress.


With continued practice, the feral dog will begin making eye contact with you. Somehow it’s as if by eye contact, you are less mysterious.


This is you 2nd plateau; enjoy the success of eye contact. After the first time it may not happen again for days. Don’t push it; wait for it. It’s cute when they try it again.


The trickier steps are coming; build the foundation. Once I learned the steps and began to celebrate; it seemed like Bonita did too.


In the 3rd phase we start to move more in preparation for focusing on the feral. We’re almost ready to apply some games and techniques. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.