After church today, as soon as the service was over I got Gimme out of the car, to take advantage of the people coming out and leaving. My plan was that she would just have the experience of watching people go by. Of course, when making that plan I didn't factor in little Miss People-Magnet Gimme. About half the people that came out had to come and meet her.
First was Marley and then her brother. This family are all obsessive animal lovers. They have so many animal species in their family and I've heard about a number of their adoptees over the years. Marley was telling me about their latest rescue, a Chihuahua. Its a little hard to imagine such a tiny dog in their large dog and large critter menagerie, but they always seem to make it work. Anyway, Gimme's first interaction was with these two experienced kids, so they were very helpful in getting the edge off.
After that was a stream of other friends. Naturally Gimme wanted to jump up and get in their face, so as quickly as possible I coached them as they were approaching to please take her collar and help her to not jump because "even though you might not care about her jumping on you, children and older people need her to be more polite." So she got plenty of interactions with people that did not include greeting-by-assault. Even though she didn't start out with four on the floor under her own power, it ended up that way. She was getting lots of attention and petting for four on the floor and I was sometimes clicking/treating and other times just treating.
Then as the exodus thinned out, I put her back in the car and went inside to talk to friends who hadn't left yet. I ran into pastor's wife on the way in and got an update on their rescue schnauzer that she'd called me about on Friday. He's doing much better and she thanked me profusely for reassuring her during the call.
After I got inside I joined my friends and apologized for rushing away, explaining that I was busy using the church members as training props. These friends are dog people too and thoroughly understood. One couple were busy talking about how their police officer son in Texas is so excited about finally getting his canine partner to train after waiting three years (dad is a local cop). The other couple are dear friends who adopted a breeder return Red Bone Coonhound with major fear and anxiety issues. I'd spent a lot of time teaching them how to help her overcome her issues and now she is a fabulous, loving and very friendly dog.
I am so blessed to go to a church with so many animal lovers in the congregation...
When we finished gabbing and headed out, they all had to come see Gimme, since it had been a couple months. So she got even more interactions, starting with help to get it right and then just (mostly) getting it right on her own. She's a smart cookie.
After everyone left, Gimme and I went and walked in the a park across the street, logging 2.25 miles. She remembered her loose leash walking from yesterday and for the most part did really well. At one point we went by some condos and a pair of Papillions on a second floor balcony were barking at her. She stopped briefly to look and see where the barking was coming from, got some metronome treats and "whazzat" a few times and then we moved on.
I noticed, even though she seemed not to pay much attention to the Paps, her loose leash got sloppy after that for awhile. And she just couldn't seem to wrap her mind around sitting before crossing the street - so I resorted to luring and then copious treats for holding the sit. So again, she shows her stress not with overt signs, but rather with degrading performance. Partly I thought it was just that she was tired and it was fairly hot, but as we passed a really shady place where it was cool, she was still intent on pulling. When we are walking without a leash and its hot, she will run ahead and lay all stretched out in a shady spot, so I thought she would be inclined to lay down there if it was just heat.
About 90 minutes later we tried a short track on brick, but she didn't do so well. We've done it when it was hotter than that, so I think she was still mentally fatigued. Next time we'll do the tracking and then come back to town and find a place for a shorter walk and see if that works better.
After that we came home and watched a western. This girl just loves anything with cows in it. She doesn't care that much about horses, except that she sees them as a predictor of cows. We were watching Lonesome Dove and it also had pigs and goats, which she was verrrrry interested in. When the chickens were on the screen making noise, she rolled her eyes, sighed and laid her head on the armrest (even though she was sitting straight up).
And no, I am not going to buy her a cow, a pig or a goat. Though I would consider getting her one of those cute cowboys!
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