A few weeks ago, one of Tom’s friends dropped by to chat. The boys stood out front for their conclave, and Lilly decided that Tom’s friend was her newest, very best friend. That’s quite a breakthrough for my fearful girl.
You see, even though he rumbled in on his motorcycle. Even though, he sports an intense personality and rapid, emphatic speaking style, Lilly decided he was just fine, thank you very much, because he played fetch with her.
I needed her to come inside so that I could drive out to my knitting class, but when I asked her, she:
- Flat out refused
- Leaned into his leg
- Looked up at him adoringly
Longtime readers may recall that our behaviorist told me years ago that I *thought* Lilly was OK with strangers but that she really wasn’t.
We’ve been working on that a long time, as well as her fears in general, via the Relaxation Protocol and other dog behavior modification methods.
Lilly’s ability to greet people (by hand targeting) has improved. She typically won’t be super friendly to people she doesn’t know, but it seems the breakthrough thing (at least at home) is if someone will play fetch with her.
Stinker!
I couldn’t be too mad at her for ignoring my request to come inside … since she had made a new pal.
It’ll be interesting to see if they continue this friendship next time he drops by.
LOL! I guess Lilly had better manners than Ty! I’ll have to work on a default sit.
Great news about Lilly! Our Ty is also afraid of strangers, but amazed me a couple weeks ago with a wonderful staff member at a campground. The woman had a fanny pack full of treats for the dog that visit and it must have been something good because Ty walked gingerly up to her, stood on his hind legs and put his front paws on her fanny pack. She was very forgiving about his less-than-perfect manners and understood why I didn’t scold him for putting his paws on her. We’ll let him get friendly with strangers first, and then work on proper greetings.
We too allow Lilly to “jump up” on certain people because it’s such a brave thing for her to do, but she RARELY does it with strangers. Like, I can think of once in the last year or two. She WILL, however, offer a very convincing default sit for other moms at our training classes because she KNOWS they all have food.
As a person who owns a dog who is generally less than thrilled in the company of men, I can appreciate this! Marge had a little breakthrough of her own this weekend on that front, with a friend of mine who she’s met a couple of times in very carefully controlled situations. It’s working out nicely.
I, too, was sorry to read about the summer stuff starting again. You’re not alone – here, we’re already dealing with our summer woe of fireworks.
That story does sound very odd for Lilly – but it sounds like fetching does the trick for her.
Was sorry to read that the summer routine has started again. I always think that it has something to do with the lighting given how reliably it appears but I believe that you tested that out using different entrances, etc. Such a mystery.
My dogs become weirdly attached to people too. My MIL, who does not like dogs much at all has taken care of our dogs for us a couple of times when we’ve been away overnight or for a long day, which means she has fed them. Well that’s it as far as my dogs are concerned. If you feed me, you deserve my undying gratitude and love and therefore they will not leave the woman alone when she comes here even though she doesn’t want to pet them or be licked by them.