Axel has been slowly improving where Speck is concerned; if she crosses the floor while I’m in the room, he just watches her intently but doesn’t move toward her. And every time she completes a back-and-forth I tell him he’s a good boy and give him a treat. But it’s much harder to train a dog to refrain from doing something than it is to train him to do something, so progress has been slow. But last week, we hit three landmarks. On Tuesday, CenturyLink finally sent someone to fix my internet (it was a corroded wire in the node out in the lane), and when the technician came into the house Axel barked at him once, smelled him, and then was calm for the rest of the time. Then on Wednesday, I had to go to Seattle; I left him outside when I left at 11 AM, had Chekhov come by about 4 to feed the farm animals and let Axel into the house, and then he was alone until I got home about 11 PM. He was pretty excited when I got back, but I was able to calm him quickly and there were no signs he had acted up (chased Speck or torn anything up) while I was gone for about 4x as long as I’ve ever left him before.
But the best was late Friday night; he was with me on the sofa while I was watching my show, then around midnight he had to go out. He was gone for a while, probably doing poo-poo, and while he was out Speck came and sat on my lap, then moved to the arm of the sofa. When he came back in, he got back in his spot, and though he kept looking at her he didn’t lunge or growl or anything else. I stayed there a while between them, petting them both, then eventually got up to check my social media one last time before bed, and took this picture during that time. He kept looking at her and occasionally at me, but did nothing bad for about an hour, at which point Speck decided to go back into Grace’s room. And of course I praised and rewarded him. Then Sunday night they got even closer; Speck came to cuddle with me on the sofa while Axel was right next to me, less than an arm’s length away. So I think we’re getting there; as of Sunday I’ve lowered his trazodone to 75mg/day, and I’ll keep it there until the beginning of March. And within a few more months I think he will complete his transition from nervous wreck to happy, well-adjusted puppy dog.
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