Manner 2/18/08: Last Class

Tessa had her last class yesterday. She did very well and is getting much better paying attention when there are distractions. The humans were dorks again though. Lael and I both go to class and we were confusing Tessa when we would switch who was working with her. This was pointed out to us and we will work on having structured ends or a command that will allow Tessa to know that it is ok to go and work with the other person. These are the types of things I find very valuable in the classes. Tare a lot of things that we can do as people that can be very confusing to the dog. These things get pointed out in class and reccomendations are given. Body language is so important and for a dog it can mean different things than what we as people think it means. Figuring this out is the rewarding/challenging part.

Tessa is still being very sensitive. She spooks easily. We pulled out jump poles in the house and that totally freaked her out. I didn't ask her to do anything with them or even walk over them. I just put them on the floor when she was not in the room, got her and walked to the couch over them to sit down. She ran to the entrance of the living room, looked at them, tucked her ears back, squished into a ball, and went to her bed in the kitchen. Silly dog. I then went outside and spread these things out where the girls go to the bathroom. When we went outside for a break she thought the poles were great, smelled good, and could care less about walking over and around them. Jeesh! In talking with Katrin and Julie at class they think it may be possible that there is something in the house that we are unaware of that is spooking her. Another example of this weird behavior was when we brough the bike up and put it on the stationary rider. Complete shut down! She wouldn't even go in the same rooom. We then started to feed her near it and she started to get over it, but if you touch the bike, meltdown! We were out yesterday and saw a couple of kids on bikes. No problem at all! Very confusing. I am happy though because that means that we can still go mountain biking with them.

Now it is time to decide what is next. I need to sign us up for a clicker class in March. A three week class which I think we will bring both girls to. We will then, possibly, start Tessa in Agility ABC's during the summer. Hopefully she chills out a little. I do have concerns though. Lael and I had met someone at a Vizsla Fun Day that had been working on agility and was doing well. They went to a trial at an indoor facility where there was a loud air conditioning unit. The dog had a meltdown and would not even go near equipment for a long time. I don't want to run into that problem, but it may be unavoidable and just something we will always have to work at.