Last Sunday as a surprisingly nice day up here in the hills, so Lilly and I packed ourselves up and went to class. Sadly, it was actually kind of chilly in town, and things didn’t go particularly well.
Even though Lilly did great at the location last time, the higher-than-usual number of dogs Lilly doesn’t know changed everything. So, there were many dogs in class, and and there were a handful of dogs using the unfenced dog park. The loose dogs seemed under control to me, but Lilly clearly thought otherwise and worried a fair amount.
She also snarked at one huge, black doodle-dog in class who got too close and poked his huge head around my leg and into Lilly’s face during one exercise. The last time I looked he was several feet away, then BOOP! There he was. Lilly was not happy.
Neither was I.
I wish I could find a way to convey to others that I’ll decide when and how to raise criteria for Lilly. In other words, it’s not their job to get closer to us. If we want to, we’ll get closer to them. I probably let it bother me too much because I felt pretty crabby for the rest of class. (I think winter is wearing on me.) Then, again, we’re working on different things than everyone else, so perhaps my expectations of them isn’t fair.
Maybe I should have just come home since Lilly was clearly in mild shutdown after the encounter.
She did rally some, however, and made some nice passes between a few dogs that I trust not to get too close. She even got excited when a young, small female doodle got to sniffing a seed pod on the ground. She popped over to check it out too, and they both sniffed. The other dog even tried some submissive hugging/kissing that young dogs sometimes do to older ones, and Lilly tolerated it well, so I praised the heck out of her.
Unfortunately, the other dog’s daddy bent down to pet Lilly and surprised her. Too much too soon.
All in all, it was one of THOSE days where training even in a group setting feels very lonely, where I’m THAT lady with THAT dog that needs space.
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