Meeting the Boys, Part 2

Read Part One here!

Starting to trust Brennan was hard work for Cody. Four people were downstairs with him, Maya and Sappho were on the stairs, and the Kezi the Cat was downstairs as well. We moved quickly through the counter conditioning so after we finished the first step with Brennan, we paused for a few minutes and let Cody release any tension he had built up and go for a potty break.

Afterwards, it was David's turn! David really wanted to engage with Cody and was eager to feed him some treats. We started the same way - David and I sat on opposite sides of the gate and I fed Cody for merely being in David's presence.

Next we moved to David feeding Cody treats. We are moving much faster with David than we did with Brennan. Brennan was Cody's first experience doing anything like this, he didn't know what to expect, and that caused a lot of tension. He relied on what he knew worked in the past - growling and barking and looking ferocious. When he learned that Brennan meant tasty treats he decided that this arrangement is pretty good. When David sat down, it was a new person but the same set up as before and so he could anticipate that treats were coming.

A few things to watch for in this video.
- This is taken within immediately after I stop counter conditioning David's presence. Cody takes a treat from David within 10 seconds after I stop rewarding him; much faster than with Brennan. 
- Around 14 seconds Cody steps away from David and checks in with me. I reward this action to encourage Cody to remove himself from situations when he feels uncomfortable (instead of just staying there and growling)
- At 25 seconds, Cody switches from watching David's hands to looking at his face. This is near impossible to see in the video, but he is giving David a hard stare, his body is tensing, and he about to start barking. I redirect by saying his name and reward him for the successful redirection
- Cody is hanging back more and I never force him to do anything. This is voluntary on his part to go take the treats. I encourage him but he is always able to move forward or away

Afterwards we took a longer break of about 10 minutes. I stayed in the sitting room with Cody and the boys headed upstairs. Since we moved through the introductions quickly I wanted to make sure Cody continued to be comfortable and got time for relaxation and potty breaks between each segment. Cody didn't display any special signs being over-aroused or stressed, but having the breaks to settle down are beneficial even if we could have kept moving forward.