progress in inches

Another winter storm is bearing down on us. ETA: Saturday noon… We are well provisioned in case a power outage blocks us from the grocery store. Actually we have enough food in the house for a few weeks! 

School went well on Wednesday night - Adia is getting better each class. We practiced what we learned last week, upping the criteria, and then moved on to other skills. She was the demo dog for greeting other people  - she had to sit by my side and not move when Laurie (the instructor) walked up and shook my hand. First go wasn’t that great, but the second one was pretty good. Lots of practice needed!

Yesterday I had her outside practicing some loose-leash walking with a distraction. What distraction? A bowl of food! We approached and retreated over and over until she could walk past it without looking. She is very food oriented so this is a big challenge. We went out a few times - and hurrah! It was warm enough for my flannel shirt and down vest.

(my pink hair is almost all washed out :-( and note another flannel shirt

Today we took her into PetSmart for more practice (out of the snow, ice, and salt). It didn’t start well - she wanted to sniff absolutely everything. I may have the patience of a saint, but eventually we got so we could walk down the aisle (past food bags!) with no sniffing and a nice loose leash. We were even getting little bits of eye contact. It took some doing, but the fact that we ended well gives me much hope. 

We’ll need many more repetitions before she’s as good as Spike was. I have to remind myself that Spike and I worked pretty hard to get to where he could walk through a restaurant without sniffing. I could do it then (10 years ago), I can do it now. I don’t have the same motivation though, and looking back I was probably more than a little manic…

All this attention to Adia seems to have upset Spike a bit. When we’remm inside he joins in and gets the same number of treats, but with 2 outings on Wednesday and a few times outside without him yesterday he seems to feel left out. Last night he cuddled up against me in bed which is very unusual for him. I thought it was because I hadn’t given him a bedtime snack, but even after the snack he still cuddled. Poor wee guy - he was always the favorite.

“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen.”

~Willa Cather