Colt- three month update

It will make exactly 3 months this Saturday since that memorable day that we adopted Colt. I can't even begin to express in words what a huge improvement he has made. It's almost as if he is a completely different dog. However, there are a few obstacles that we are still trying to overcome with him. For instance, his intense fear of loud noises. He is much better than he was but he still continues to crouch down, run away, or hide when he encounters any loud noise. Another obstacle that we are trying to overcome is his fear of going for a walk. When we first got him he had never been for a walk before so it was a challenge to even get him to walk 3 feet away from the house. When he would walk more than 3 feet from our house he would essentially take us "for a walk". He would pull so much that and it was near impossible not to feel like your arm was going to come out of its socket. To solve this problem we purchased the gentle leader and basically its a head collar  that exerts light pressure on the bridge of the nose in the same manner in which lead dogs naturally communicate. This has helped tremendously, but it has not completely fixed the problem. Even though there is pressure exerted on the bridge of his nose he still continues to pull when he wants to escape from a loud noise or a car. I'm working on being more calm and assertive on walks (I have been reading the Dog Whisperer books-they are fantastic). I want to try to work more on this, but with the winter weather coming..I'm not sure how that will play out.

Finally, the toughest obstacle of them all... visitors. Due to the fact that Colt was not exposed to strangers in foster care and he has passed the grace period of being introduced to many people as possible..Long story..short..Colt is terrified of strangers. In the past when we have brought him to our parents homes he seems to be fine after he warms up a little bit, but at our home forget it. As soon as somebody comes to the door he will either look like he is about to get hit or he will run upstairs to our bedroom, where his bed is, and just lie down until our visitors have left. We want to tackle this issue by inviting more people to come to the house and ignoring him until he wants to greet our guests. Then we will show him that our guests are nice and aren't going to harm him by allowing them to give him a treat(another tactic I learned from the dog whisperer). We have already tried this once with our friend that came over on Sunday and it worked wonders. He even gave her his paw! I was so proud of him. In order to continue with his training we are planning on taking him to Petco for doggie play classes to allow him to meet more dogs and of course more people. We are trying so very hard to make this the best home possible for him, and I think we are doing a great job so far. There are a few things that need work, but overall he grown into such a sweet & loving dog. Cory mentioned the other day how he couldn't imagine life without Colt now. I couldn't either.

Of course.. an update wouldn't be complete without ....pictures!

                                                  Colt giving daddy 2 paws at the same time!

                                                                Colt going "up" for Daddy

Colty's side profile

and my favorite..kisses from my best friend.