I wanted to build up to leash walking so for the past couple days I put a harness on Janey so that she can get used to the idea of it. Having the harness was a backup to the collar - so we had 2 attachment points, in case she wrangled out of one, there was another.
Early evening after walking my dogs I noticed the street was very quiet, folks had not arrived home from work, no kids playing out, no people walking... I thought this would be a great time to have Janey out. This would be the 1st time she would have been in or out the front door. Her arrival here was in a crate through the side gate into the backyard and into the house from there. As an extremely fearful and super shy dog, I wanted her to get used to the backyard, the house, and my dogs and me before exposing her to the 'rest of world' which included many things I could not control.
She hesitated a bit before walking out the front door with me, understandably. She didn't appear totally scared, you could see curiosity winning over, and that was great to see. We walked a couple steps and stopped, her nose was going crazy. We got to the driveway and then I led her to the side yard of the house where she sniffed the garden border and along the fence line. She never resisted the lead, slight pressure to move in a direction was all she needed. She moved cautiously and bravely followed me. We headed down the short driveway, then we walked sidewalk the length of the house and back, taking our time. Whenever I stopped, she stopped and gave herself a good body shake to release some energy.
Our foray outside on leash was brief - wanted to keep it short and sweet. I told her let's go inside and she happily trotted with me to the front door. I thought that was a good sign that she didn't drag me back to get back inside to the 'safe haven' of the house. First leash walk, successful!
This morning I took Janey out again. It was early, about 6:30am so the neighborhood was quiet and we enjoyed another brief walk. This being her first outing of the day I was curious to see if she would pee or even poo with me in such close quarters. I took her just past the neighbors house and she peed by the mailbox, as so many other dogs have done. And then a couple steps later near a fence, she actually pooped (see previous post - she had not pooped in 2.5 days)! Calm praise and a cookie for Janey!
As we headed back a neighbor and his daughter came out of their house. Janey could not see them but could hear them talking and was on alert. She jerked the leash once to get away but I held firm and calmly called her to me (treat in hand) and she approached me but did not take the treat. She was staring in the direction of the 'other people' perfectly still and alert. I talked to her in a soft voice and she would look at me and then look towards the noise. She finally accepted a treat and we slowly moved to sit on the front steps of the house. There are enough shrubs so that we could sit there and the world passing by would not necessarily be able to see us but we could see them - good for Janey. So she sat with me, on alert but not freaking out. When we got inside she 'shook it all off' and was ready for breakfast.
Those were the first leash experiences for Janey, and they were good ones! Let's hope we can continue to make her world a little bigger, a little better, a little bit at a time.
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