Lanzarote Dog Trainer

We went for another long walk today. Salvador is much more relaxed when he is moving but still quite nervous. When we stopped for a minute for me to see hoe he behaved he starts to get more nervous. This is something we will have to work on slowly so I will probably spend 5 minutes of every session just sitting quietly with him to help him relax. For today though we walked at a reasonably brisk pace and I made sure to keep my movements fluid so I didn’t startle him at all.

He did show some interest in me today and as we were walking kept leaning towards me to smell me, this is really good he wants to know me.

Poor Salvador. From the moment you see him you feel for him, he just looks so nervous.

Today I just took him for a gentle walk. He spends the whole time looking from left to right as though expecting something to jump out at him. It’s important with very nervous dogs not to rush them and also not to give them too much attention as this can make them worse. I didn’t speak to Salvador or touch him today, I want him to get to know me first. When he’s ready he will let me know.

This will probably be quite a long haul to help him as anything that scares him can set him back and also the environment in the shelter is not good for a nervous dog. He’s not the worst case and I’m sure we’ll see some improvement before too long.

Salvador is a four year old male podenco that has been in the shelter since 2007. He is currently reserved to go to Germany but has been on the list for some time so may not go. He is extremely nervous and frightened of everything. I am going to work with him to see if I can help him to build up his confidence and help him relax.

Podencos are by nature quite a highly strung nervous breed. They are a Canarian breed very like the Ibizan Hound and were and still are used for hunting rabbits. They are generally very good natured and excellent with people but they do need a lot of exercise as they have been bred with the stamina to hunt all day.