Getting out of my head

I spent a lot of time thinking last night and even today... all the things I was told about this dog and what to expect are vastly different from the dog in front of me. That's when I told myself not to be so concerned with all that stuff and her history and work with the dog in front of me. That's me getting out of my head.

The interactions yesterday between Janey and Molly totally threw me for a loop. Typically any dog that tried to one up Moll gets sets straight and all is good. My boss dog wasn't being the boss and was slinking away. Huh? My verbal corrections to Janey are read by Molly as directed at her. This has always been the interesting side of Molly that few get to see... with me she is very soft... a stern voice gets a response immediately.

Overnight Molly woke me twice to be let out... she is having the runs. Every bowel movement
she had today, I counted 6, all runny. Is it stress, or is it the other thing that I fear, aware for awhile now of a health issue. And here is this other dog trying to get in her face. Argh.

The first part of the day Janey seemed to give Molly wide berth and that diminished as the day went on. So yeah today there were minor 'couch' situations that came up, but this time I intervened before anything happened.

I know that up until "Couch-gate" I have been putting no pressure on Janey, simply letting her come out of her shell. But as I wrote... she's gotta work for things now.

Today I was sure to get some one on one time with Janey. We worked on name recognition and eye contact, and sit. I noticed that by the end of the day she was offering sit which is great... but I still got to be careful on my approaches to her. She can still spook rather easy. Sometimes even my verbal praise can be too much for her. When I say spook, for Janey that means freeze up. She sits in a huddle, back curved and thusly 'shrinks' into this sitting mound of frozen dog. And when she is stressed, I've been observing, the tip of her tongue pokes out.

When being let out of her crate from rest periods, she very quickly caught on that pawing at the door gets her nowhere.

We worked on toy interaction, where I can take the toy with no reactivity and give it back to continue playing.

So we did a lot. In little bits. Introducing "other people"come in later.

Need to get irresistible treats. Something smelly but neat and easy. I think Natural balance rolls will work. The cut-up chicken treats she likes, but I need something YUM. Oh yeah...she ate the pocket out of a favorite fleece. There were a few pieces of chicken jerky in there. The fleece was balled up on the dining table. And totally my fault she got into it and finished with it before I even knew she was up to no good.

Cuz Ball is a riot outside. I brought it out this morning and forgot how early it was. Yikes, sorry neighbors! As I fired up the grill for dinner, with Molly by my side, Janey had an awesome time playing. She was on the long line, but, and I love this, she did not try and disappear up into the the hill with it the way she wanted to this morning. That was awesome... she stayed in plain view totally enjoying herself. She totally ignored the sights and smells of burgers and hot dogs on the grill. Though tonight as I let her out for her nighttime pee, she walked by the grill, paused, backed up and had her feet up on it, taking in the aromas of the grease drippings.

She rested in her open crate this morning all by herself. She goes into her nighttime crate with no problems... though I know she would love to be in the big cushy dog beds or my bed.

Speaking of which... bedtime for all.