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January 5, 2009

Consistent efforts to line up human visitors for our various behavior modification tasks sputtered out as holiday demands ate up even more of potential volunteers’ time. Plus, a girl gets tired of begging for help with such tedious dog training. However, we took the opportunity for low-key, dog-meets-stranger encounters as they cropped up.

At risk of jinxing us, I’ll say that Lilly appears more comfortable around people, at least at home. She is particularly fond of anyone who will throw the ball for her — as our neighbor Caleb did one day last week. Heck, he’s even kind of hugging/holding her, and she looks pretty relaxed.

[The photo is one of 600 that got lost somehow from the blog. I cannot find the original. I’m sorry the photo is missing. It was very cute.]

So, we’ll continue to use food and fetch as ways for Lilly to comfortably interact with visitors (be they strangers to her or not).

The next step in our behavior modification work is for me to ask actual strangers when we’re in public, if they would be willing to meet Lilly. At best, that’ll be once a week … not the daily exposure we’d really need for consistency required by such detailed desensitization work.

The trick is picking the right people to take part and getting up the gumption to ask.

Those who know me will attest to the fact that I’m NOT a shy person. Truth be told, I’m very much an extrovert, but several things conspire against me:

  • Our somewhat remote living
  • The fact that I spend most workdays solo
  • The reality that many/most people likely don’t give a rat’s behind about our dog training efforts

When people approach on our walks in town, I do all the right things. I smile. I make eye contact, but so far, I’ve not asked anyone for help. Sometimes I almost ask, then I chicken out.

About the Author Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related.

I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

  1. I asked many a stranger for help when we were working to get Z over his fears. Usually I would pick some place not too crowded, but where there was fairly regular foot traffic, and watch people for any sign of interest in my dog. If they looked happy to see a dog, I asked them for help with whatever stage we were working on at the time, whether it was just walking past us a few times, or giving him some treats, or whatever. I can’t think of a single instance where someone turned me down – usually people seemed really happy to help out. Go for it!

  2. Thanks, Elayne. I’ll let you know. Right now, the plan is to take just ONE Gigi class in Boulder per month … either on a Sunday or a Wednesday.

    I think I’d have better luck if Lilly was still a pup or super cute. I, of course, think she’s VERY cute, but many times in our public group classes, I’ve seen people walk right past all the dogs and focus on the pups or the really unusual dogs.

    There’s one pup that’s a doodle of some sort, I think, who has that classic Hollywood mutt look, and it’s hilarious watching people flock to him.

    And, yes, you never know if people will follow directions, and I’d hate for someone to scare her.

  3. I’m happy to help you any time you’re in Boulder. Just let me know.

    You might be surprised, people are often flattered if you ask them to help with dog training. This is a tact people with fear aggressive dogs use to keep people from petting their dogs-they catch the person before they get too close then ask if they’d like to help with training and the people are often quite happy to help. It’s tough with strangers though, you never know what they might do or if they’ll follow your directions.

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