Things seem to be progressing steadily with Jinxsie. I've really been focussing on making myself aware of her emotional state and starting every session slowly and building up. This has really benefited us. I find that it still takes her a while to get going and if we happen to walk out the door and a squirrel is in the yard, well she still gets really amped and won't respond to my redirection. So, I've stopped worrying about it and have also started to get her to speak and give me a few hups while we're in the yard before we head across the street to the park. This has certainly helped, and I had a real "Moose" moment with her once when we stepped out of the yard and a little pug was right there. She turned and gave me a good push without any prompting!
The other night I had what I think was a real breakthrough moment with her. It was quite windy out and this normally spooks her so I was an unproductive evening with her. She wasn't into playing tug but she gave me a couple of good pushes. Then, we heard some guy yelling from an apartment nearby. Jinxsie started to panic and I chose to plant myself and held her close on the leash. Then, she stopped, turned in the direction of the yelling and gave three or four of the deepest barks I'd ever heard come out of her. After that her pushing got really intense, but she still wasn't into playing tug much. I thought she did great though.
One of the developments that I'm most excited about is that she's now jumping up on me with a toy in her mouth and I've been transitioning into Push-of-War with her a little bit. Today I tested it a little bit and only brought one toy to the park with me. Sure enough, we'd play tug, I'd let her win and she'd jump right up on me for another tug with the toy in her mouth.
It's been great to see so much progress but I'm still trying to be cautious about pushing her too far, too fast. All in good time, though.
10-12-2010, 06:50 PM
Progress....
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