Back to work!

I'm back to walking the crew separately. Good for me...good for them.

Sherman is suddenly my best dog. Funny how that works. Tonight we saw two Beardies & the owner asked if he could come over to say hello. I told her he was weird with other dogs sometimes, but we could give it a shot. He was fine...dancing around, wagging his tail. He sits & waits when people walk by, auto Sits at intersections, doesn't react to strange dogs. He's truly a joy to walk.

I'd been walking Penny with Sherman a lot over the winter b/c it's too freaking cold to spend an hour & a half walking dogs. I had been using the harness and not really working on her leash manners. I'm happy to report that all the LLW work I did a couple of months ago was not forgotten. She's really better on just the martingale than the harness. She now takes the cue of a tight leash to turn & come back to heel...80% of the time. We saw a bunch of dogs and she didn't react once. There IS hope for Lola!!!

The real challenge is little Miss Lolita.

"Do I look like a challenge?"

Since all of the Click to Calm stuff is fresh in my mind, it's been fun the past couple of days to work with some of the ideas. We've been working on sound sensitivity for a while. It's Soooo much better than it was a few months ago. Now rather than saying "Yeah Lola!" any time we hear another dog barking, I'm Clicking when the dog barks right before she has a chance to talk back. We haven't had one single "bark back" since I've been home. I've been doing a lot of stuff right in front of the house, on the porch & front steps b/c she is very anxious when we first leave the house. If she's calm & looks at me...c/t. If she looks at people walking by...c/t. If she offers behaviors...c/t. I've also been changing my body posture from my usual "Ok, Let's Go" speed walking to more of a stroll. I'm concentrating on walking more slowly, relaxed arms and shoulders (pretending I'm getting a shoulder massage from Dr. McDreamy is a great way to help me relax!). This makes a HUGE difference.

So for the last few days, rather than dreading my walks with Lola...I've been looking forward to them!!

While checking my email...I turned around and found Lola on one of the chairs in the office. I swear she thinks she's a person.

"Trying to get some rest here...enough with the pictures".

Sherman used to sit in those chairs. He's too lazy to jump up on them now!