These first few days at home with Sasha have been a challenge.

First, we have to make a big paradigm adjustment to “dog think”. Wife and I have been neglecting many other things in our lives (including each other), instead spending our time devouring all that we can about dog think, training, behavior, etc.. Who said training is for the dog? It’s for the owner. 🙂

There is no question Sasha loves and submits to us. We go away and come back, she explodes with joy and excitement at the sight of us. We can cuddle her, brush every part of her, manipulate her head and teeth, you name it, and all the kids can do it too. No doubt, girl has said “This is my family. I love them, I will protect them.”

It’s that last part that’s been hard to deal with.

We don’t know if Sasha has baggage. I spoke with the breeder about this a couple of days ago, and their feeling is Sasha is adjusting. New family, which is strongly claims, then everything else around her is new as well. So, family is good, everything else is unfamiliar thus a potential threat. Thus, much barking, almost impossible to have other people in the house. It’s been a challenge. Wife was rather dejected on Sunday evening. Even the discussions with a friend of mine were a bit on the negative side and had me a little concerned and beat down, like did I get myself into a bad situation?

But I’ll say this.

Sasha is improving.

I’ve been working on the basics: sit, stay, down, come; she knows them, but isn’t 100% with them (especially if there’s a distraction like a perceived threat, which could just be someone outside walking down the sidewalk). She’s good at “drop it” and “leave it”. She knows her name.

I’ve been working on her with “quiet”. I’ve been working on her about going to her “room” (crate). I’ve also been working on loose leash walking. I see progress, but also a lot of work ahead.

This morning, I took her out for a walk. The past few days I haven’t done a neighborhood walk, instead we’ve been in the yard working on loose leash walking technique. But later today Sasha will have her first visit to “doggie school“, so I didn’t want to do any training work, just morning poop and a walk to get a little exercise. I expected the walk to be like prior walks: her talking me out for a controlled drag (I will not let the dog control the situation, but certainly past “walks” have been a massive tug-o-war). But to my (welcome) surprise, the walk was not like that! Oh sure, it wasn’t a picture perfect “at my side” walk, but I could tell she was getting it with regards to proper walk. I’d say the leash was loose 70% of the walk. Oh sure she’d get a little behind me to sniff something, but I’d keep walking and merely the pop of the leash tightening when I got far enough away was enough to tell her to get back to me. Or she’d get in front of me, perhaps slight tension on the leash, but never a strong pull that I had to fight. A few cars drove by, she got alert but no problem. We had to stop on the sidewalk as a car was backing out of a driveway, I had her sit, no problems. Someone was in the shadows of their driveway, coming out to get their newspaper, and that did excite her more than anything else on the walk so I did have to give a few explicit pops, but there was no barking or overt “must fend off the threat!” behavior.

Much praise was lavished on Sasha throughout the walk. 🙂

The Kuvasz has their nature, and that’s part of why we chose this breed. I do not want to turn her into something she’s not, I do not want to suppress her nature, only help us live in better harmony. She needs to allow our friends to come over to our house and allow herself to get to know them — they are extended flock. So, we just have to keep working on things.

She’s not a lost cause. She just needs work, but then, don’t we all?