Matlida the one year old female German Shepherd has made huge advancements. She is now allowing strangers to touch her and has even approached some people on her own. I have more work to do with her owners as we need to begin expanding Matilda's world. She will eventually come to understand in her canine mind that her owners can protect her and that they have made everyone she meets her friend. Matilda has greatly improved by using a Gentle Leader and practicing basic obedience in the presense of strangers in familiar environments. It is now time to advance her rehabilitation to include practicing in new locations and allowing more people to approach. Matilda will be held accountable by her owners to follow her obedience training around new people. She will be rewarded by doing so by her owners and then immediatly by the new person present. When I watch Matilda around strangers, I can see she really wants to interact with other people. I believe that the style and mind set of the puppy trainer she originally went to was not an appropriate fit for the temperament Matilda. She needed to be able to bond and interact with many people as a puppy and that just wasn't allowed by that particular trainer. Now for the first time in Matilda's life she is meeting people without severe anxiety and fear and is becoming confident and curious of the world and the humans around her.

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