July 27, 2013
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We Are Exhausted Now
Annie passed her Intermediate Obedience class.
Annie.
These were the tests: sit/stay, sit/stay with distraction, heel, park it...there was another one. I was worried about 'stay' because we haven't really practiced that in any regular way and she doesn't stay for me (largely because I only use it to go out of the door without her or other highly charged and inappropriate times.) Also there were two other dogs in the class which we have not seen in two weeks and we wanted to eat them, so I wasn't convinced I had her total attention.
She stayed! She released! I must have looked shocked!
Our next class begins...well, our next two classes begin Wednesday evening (July 31) and Saturday, August 3. Yes. Two classes. Control Unleashed and Advanced Obedience. Control Unleashed is specifically designed for reactive dogs, but there will be 6 of them in the class, counting Annie. I've read part of the book. I called the woman organizing the class and said, 'Um--I'm not sure my dog doesn't need the class before this one, in order to get into this class...' So we'll see. I may end up taking Riley, who is not 'reactive', but who has gotten the short end of the training stick here and who could certainly help me learn my end of the lessons.
And I can be dense, I assure you. I understand cats. I understand cat body language, I understand cat expressions. Dogs are a foreign language. This is how bad it is: I was sitting on my stool after class, talking to the instructor, and Annie was standing in front of me--literally a body block, had I ever looked at what she was doing--and I was fussing about the next class and how well we might do and how she still attacks other dogs and she said,
DUH
"when she's standing in front of you, she's protecting you. If you don't want her to protect you--if you have the situation under control--put her behind or beside you."
Which our regular trainer has told me to do 1,000 times, it just never clicked. She's protecting me.
You're helpless and clearly don't see this coming threat, but I'll protect you, Cheryl
at the dog, who was standing at full alert, her body literally sideways to block me, and I thought, How did you miss that? What did you think she was doing?
Murphy worked very hard to school me in dog-speak, but there is only so much a little dog can do.
This was also an interesting revelation, although I'm still not sure what it means. Riley loves to be rubbed. Anywhere, he doesn't care: you start rubbing Riley and he puddles at your feet and sighs in delight. Annie is a little more guarded about being touched. She doesn't like having the top of her head patted. She reminds me of that daily because I am a habitual head-patter, and because when she wants something, she rests her chin on my knee which puts her head in prime patting location. Anyway, she decided to eliminate one of the co-dogs from the class for being excessively irritating, and I hauled her up to face me with her body pretty much between my knees and I started massaging her jaws (because I read in a book that dogs carry tension in their jaws.) I ended up massaging the top of her head. She nearly fell asleep standing up. Her jaws are about the size and consistency of small chicken breasts, which I find impressive. She does indeed seem to like to have them rubbed.
This is a terrible picture, but it is also one of a kind. In the 11 months Annie has lived with us, this is the first time Ihave ever seen her relax this much. (Nancy had been rubbing her belly.)
This a more normal Annie:
Sadly the dog couch is over-due for its trip to the dump. It was a good couch. What damage the dogs didn't do to it, the steam cleaner did.
