Reassessing our priorities

As noted in 'What we are prioritising and why', it is absolutely impossible and overwhelming to work on everything at once so it's useful to have a plan.

This was our original list:

1. Calmness and relaxation at home
2. Reducing noise sensitivity at home
3. Building confidence in leaving the house
4. Slowly reintroducing walks and some triggers at a distance
5. Building confidence in alone time
6. Handling (cooperative care)

1, 2 and 3 are under control at the moment and 4 is slowly progressing. They are still a work in progress but as we are making improvements and what we are doing is working, they are no longer top of the list.

I have decided I need to move handling (cooperative care) to include brushing to the top of the list.

George's separation anxiety is still a major challenge but I am trying to avoid overwhelm by trying to tackle multiple big issues at once.

At a recent groom, the groomer advised George had some matting on his ears. I felt like a neglectful owner.

George's tolerance of brushing seems to be getting worse and worse. I have been giving him a licki-mat whilst brushing which he has tolerated in the past but now he is struggling.

Given it's a welfare issue (matting can be painful for dogs and the de-matting/shaving process is unpleasant), and with George being a high-maintenance breed for grooming, I need to prioritise this.

I aim to work a little on handling/brushing every day that George is not in daycare. After daycare he is sleepy and needs the decompression time so I don't think I'd be setting him up for success on those days.

We have worked on chin rests and ear, back and leg touches with our trainer so I am familiar with the basic concept of cooperative care. I hope to use the same technique with the brush.

I aim to remember to give George choice: throwing a treat away after a few repetitions so George has the option to retreat and the choice whether to come back and reengage.

We started today and it went OK. We started with both ears and the top of the head which we'll repeat before progressing further depending on George's tolerance levels. I am using a high value treat which I plan to only pair with brushing.

It's going to be a slow process so I need to try to commit to little and often.