Hi again,
As Eric said I contacted a behavioralist (well, their answering machine) the other day and I am waiting for a return call. Apparently they only return calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I told them I wanted to ask a few questions. Any suggestions on what type of questions to ask? I do want to know if they will come to the house. From the sound of the recording she does things at her clinic. I am not sure how much help that would be since he only has problems in our home.
I also must say Eric and I do disagree on some things including perception. As of right now the girls do not do a lot with Bruno. The interact with him (walks, playing, some tricks)when we are present and they do a pretty good job. Some of their problems of being consistant is because of Eric and I (and they are teenagers). We have changed things a few times because of things we have learned and sometimes they will do what was origanally said. This is a new thing for all of us. As for me I am not perfect I do occasionally say yeah before I say good boy, but it is all in one sentence. I am working on it. I work with special needs toddlers and the yeah thing is a LARGE part of my vocabulary when I get a response I was looking for. He may not admit it but Eric slips occassionally too when it comes to markers and timing, but no one is perfect. I just tend to think inside "Sh**! I screwed up again." then try to make a mental note to do better next time. I must admit I am doing better. I guess I am saying this because I don't want you to think I am not trying. From reading Eric's post it looks as if I am not trying or caring as much as he is. The last post in the thread said to try and get the girls and I to get on board too (not exact wording). We are on board. I just tend to be less vocal about pointing out mistakes/inconsistancies. I do agree Bruno listens and likes Eric better. Eric spends more time with Bruno because he can and he likes to. We had read/been told that one person should demonstrate dominance and work on behaviors before others were introduced. We had decided that it would be Eric. Since then we realized all of us need to work with him, but that time and bond has already been established. Growing up I had many animals and they all seemed to bond more closely to the one who spent more time with them when they frist came into our home. Anyway that is my thought on it. Eric isn't around when I do most of my interactions with Bruno and lately because of school I have left most of the training/interactions to him when he is home. We are all on board with the consistancy thing even if Eric doesn't think we work as hard as he does. And the vet did not tell me we were inconsistant. The technician laughed and said Bruno had us trained because he won't eat unless we are close to him and we have to change feeding techniques every few weeks.
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DZ
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
