There are 2 or 3 local outdoor cats that drive the dogs absolutely bonkers running up our driveway either on their way into or out of our back yard. (Even though my dogs live with a cat, outdoors cats might as well be squirrels.) The cats regularly can be seen hanging out in the front yard across the street, (that family has rabbits) and they regularly cross the street back and forth at various points within sight of our house. (I always cringe when I see them cross, but so far they seem to be either very lucky, or somewhat street smart as we live on the main street in our city. A very small city.)
Tonight as I took Sirius out, one of the cats was crossing from our side to the other side about 2 houses up from us. At first Sirius became very exctied and wanted to go get the cat. I talked to her about the kitty and that she couldn't have the kitty, and she looked right at me. Having my clicker in my hand, I clicked and then dug in my treat pouch for some homemade hamburger jerkey. She seemed to immediately forget all about the cat. Yippee!
Then a little further along on our walk, we encountered a group of very small, very barkey dogs which were also on the other side of the street. She looked at them, then looked away from them and continued on her way without so much as a grunt. yippee!
On top of that, last night, we encountered 2 larger dogs, about Sirius' size crossing the cross street on the other side of the street. Once again, she looked at the dogs, but continued on with what she had been doing without so much as a grumble.
Even on Saturday, we encountered a dog, this time on our side of the street upon our return from an outing. I always look out of the van windows to make sure the coast is clear before getting out, but somehow missed the dog out about 2 houses up. I quickly headed towards the driveway to get into the house before the dog got closer to our property. There was some resistance from Sirius as I verbally and cheerefully encouraged her to come on lets go, but she came along without a single bark. Yippee!
I'm still going to head across the street and hide behind a car if the neighborhood nemesis (larger black dog, about Sky's size, that both of my dogs seem to absolutely hate) shows up with his owner though.
Even Sky is doing better as we walk the neighborhood. Becoming more calm as we pass barkey dogs, She still whines anxiously sometimes, but is much less likely to try to take off at a run. Which is a big yippee!
