Our baseline sit-stay relaxation work continues, as does the process of extinction on attention seeking behaviors. We had to up the ante on bugging me because just turning away from her wasn’t working. So, now, I leave the room and close the door for at least 20 seconds. It might be working. On Monday, she only bugged me 7 times between 9 am and 5 pm. That’s actually good, compared to 20+ most days last week. Otherwise, here are a few things to note:
What a Relaxed Lilly Looks Like and Breathes Like
Since the daily list of sit-stay tasks is pretty tedious and since Lilly gets the idea and holds steady, I’m focusing my attention on her status of relaxation so that I have something for comparison when/if she gets fearful/anxious. When I’m not doing odd things required by each task, I’m mostly standing there, taking deep breaths, with my eyes half closed, for the plain sit-stays of varying lengths that are sprinkled throughout the list. So, I figure I should do something productive and observe Lilly. Here’s what I saw:
- Even when she’s fairly relaxed, she tends to take quick, short breaths. I’ll have to find a way to get her to breathe a little better. Sometimes, she’ll respond to my breathing, but so far, not much, not often.
- There’s a definite set to her face and jaw when she’s chilling. It’s not a full-on happy face, and it’s not a worried face, but something in-between.
- She keeps her ears mostly up and her shoulders square. If she notices something, her ears move a tiny bit forward, and she leans just a little forward as well.
The Front Door Battle
As I mentioned last week, we’re trying to avoid the battle over coming in at night. We have a completely different ritual, where she comes in for the final time for dinner. Then, if she needs to go outside, she’s allowed only in the dog pen off the garage, and if there’s any doubt, I just leave both doors open (pen to garage, garage to inside) and she comes in when she comes in.
So far, she’s coming in fine.
I’m not quite sure how this helps me solve the other scenario since it’s so different, but I do know that our behaviorist likes to have dogs practice behaviors in similar but not identical situations. She *is* going out and coming back in without drama, so there you go. Maybe if we let this new routine settle in (despite what it does to our usual summertime evening routine), then maybe we can fix the problem through time and distance.
Sadly, Tom forgot and let her out last night after she’d eaten, and we did have some trouble getting her back inside. I had to walk away, but he somehow got her to come in through the garage.
Still Hiding at Times
I babysat my 7-year-old niece Saturday night, and Tom said that Lilly hid in the basement for a while while I was gone. Then, Sunday night, she decided to wallow in the hall bathtub for about 30 minutes. I went in to talk to her, and she moved to our bed, then later she came out and snuggled on top of Tom. She likes to lay chest-to-chest with him around 9 pm most nights. So, she crawled up and fell asleep. He got a major cramp in his neck, and one of his arms fell asleep from her weight, but she was SO cuddly that he didn’t want to move.
Horsemen (or dogmen) of the Apocalypse
Just a couple days after our most recent run in with the Newphie, we came down our last hill and into the valley … only to see the Newphie barreling down the road next to his mom who was riding an ATV. He was on leash, and clearly, she’d come down the mountain to get him and bring him home AGAIN. At least we missed him when he was roaming, but they were taking up most of one side of the road. On the other side? A friend running with her 2 dogs (a husky mix and a border collie mix), again both on leash. BUT, when you combine all that, it created a moving blockade coming right at us.
3 running dogs
a noisy ATV
two women talking loudly to each other
one of them running
all of them backlit
In short, Lilly’s worse nightmare.
Thankfully, the 2 dogs on the corner who bark at us a lot were NOT out in their yard, SO, Lilly and I climbed down the embankment and used the difference in height and the tall grass as barriers. She sat and ate while I told her what a brave, amazing girl she was. Once they were past us, we climbed back up and went home.
So, one potentially snark-causing emergency averted. I get a gold star … yes?
Wow, that sounds like a scenario sure to give many a dog palpitations. I’m sure that my dog and I would have been in the embankment as well.