Weekly Training Update (April 25)

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I wrote a while back about how I had stopped keeping track of Lilly’s “reactions.” At the time, I mused about understanding where she’s coming from. If the reaction made sense to me, it didn’t count.

Well, I also think that the reason I stopped tracking was because it has become increasingly rare. Silly, silly me for thinking that was a good sign. I let my guard down. I began to believe the worst was over.

I … am … an … idiot!

At class this week, Lilly had a rough start because a pack of young people at the park, which includes an unfenced dog park, had some sort of fire-cracker-like things. Great! Sharp exploding noises. Just was a sound sensitive dog needs.

But, she seemed to rebound OK, so I didn’t worry too much.

Then, she flew off the handle.

We were working on some down stays. Lilly was about 5-6 feet from the nearest dog. A longtime classmate, sweet lab likely mixed with great Dane (who looks a LOT like Ginko), arrived a little late and bounced her way into the group on leash. I saw her coming. I alerted Lilly. I traded her food for attention, and she STILL snarked and lunged at the pup. Then, she turned and snarked at the dog next to her.

AUGH!!!!

Gigi suggested putting her in the car as a timeout, but I thought if I was going back to the car, then I was GOING HOME. Seriously, I almost went home.

It’s one thing to use a crate in a regular class in a regular location, but it’s not a viable option in our about-town classes.

I work VERY hard to keep a positive attitude, to maintain hope that we’re making progress. BUT, sometimes a breakthrough of the bad kind crushes me. In my constant state of self-diagnosis, I’ve concluded that I’m overly concerned with THE STREAK.

I *so* need to make peace with living in the moment. I put too much stock in the fact that things have gone well snark-wise for many, many weeks. Like Lilly … I tend to see meaning in patterns. Is it a smart girl thing? A creative girl thing? Or a crazy girl thing?

Gigi even said something like “We haven’t seen her do that in months.”

Rather than leave which was REALLY tempting, I moved Lilly about 20 feet from everyone and began again. (Do you think there’s as record for starting over? If so, we’d hold the World Record.)

Lilly recovered fast, and we inched our way closer to the group again with no problems. She worked the entire rest of the class without incident, even though there were loose dogs from the park coming at us now and again. I’d just turn with Lilly in tow, and we’d keep walking away until the other dog got the hint. We also used our classmates as a blockade, figuring the dogs would “greet” them first, while we made our get-away. (Thanks, guys!)

Lilly even stood by and watched as the other dogs played in the ditch, bounding into the water after balls, shooting back up from out of view. It didn’t make her nervous. She didn’t feel the need to be the fun police. She just watched and ate treats.

So, the balance of the day was fine. Stressful because we had things coming at us from all directions, but we did OK.

Still … I was pretty crabby about the snarking. Why? Because it meant 2 tough classes in a row.

There I go again.