Have you ever had one of those sublime moments of perfection when your precious pooch breaks through on a huge training point… I mean like a complete 180 of pure bliss?

My little 4 year old, Qeynos, has had social anxiety issues and car sickness since he was a pup. Absolutely lovable and full of joy when at home with mommy, but then transforms into a quivering fear ball out in the world.

*Cringer with no BattleCat action sequence*

His only travel happiness has been either trips to my parents to play with his pudgy LabRottMix buddy and the park adjacent to our house for Frisbee (which is the equivalent to crack on his addiction scale). He became even worse after my greyhound Trixie died last year, to the point that he would mess himself if someone other than family tried to touch him. Over this past year, since getting Beezly our new little whippy, I’ve been working with him constantly on his confidence and taking him out with Beezly to various places, even if just in the car around a few blocks. He has made vast improvements and has gotten to the point that he hasn’t been getting sick in the car, and he even has been doing “ok” at the dog park although he never loved it and would go to the nearest picnic table to hide out while Beezly ran around joyously.

Well, a few months back he started occasionally coming off HIS table at the dog park to try and tag Beezly on his run by’s. So to encourage him we devised a game where I leave him at his table with my husband and walk out to the other end of the park, then when most/all the dogs are preoccupied the other way my husband would tell him to “get mommy” which is a game we play at home where I hide and “get mommy” means find me and cover me with smooches. *ahhh puppy love* Since Qeynos is SO mommy oriented this worked to get him to run from his table, get a pet, but then he would run back to his table. This was pretty good to me and I felt he had made such progress that I was satisfied that he just wasn’t terrified anymore.

So now the amazing part…

We went to the dog park Saturday, as is tradition because Beezly will mope all day until we go (“mope” with these pups is an olympic sport), and when I said “let’s go to the park”… Qeynos got all happy like he does when we go to my parents (he knows the difference between “park” and “Pudgy’s House” because his vocabulary is huge). But I thought “huh, maybe he just wants to go in the car, then once he sees we are going to the park he’ll be bummed”… but he wasn’t, and when I unclipped his leash he tore off with Beezly… not to his afore mentioned safe zone but AROUND THE PARK WITH THE OTHER DOGS!!!!!
He actually PLAYED… And was HAPPY! He would run out and play a round of chase then run back to me at the table to get a pet, then run right back out to play! So I took them Sunday too, and the same thing…. Total doggie bliss.

I’m just soooooooo PROUD! This is a HUGE mental break through for him. He still seems to have a threshold if there are to many dogs or too big of dogs he will run back to me to get a reassuring pet or rest on top of his table… but for the most part he just runs back out into the fun once he sees they aren’t after him.

I never thought after 4 years of trying and failing, I could get him to this point… My goal was just to get him a little less fearful and more tolerant, but for him to actually ENJOY playing with other dogs and even greeting the occasional stranger, is the most amazing thing I have ever accomplished with my boys…
I feel like he just won the doggie Olympics!