Day 7 (09/17/17): puppy class

I had planned a play date with a trainer friend's Puppy Culture-raised PWD puppy, but we decided to reschedule since Terra had a big night yesterday. She had more diarrhea during the night but it wasn't so watery. She scarfed down her breakfast of 1 lb of cooked chicken, 4 oz of cooked sweet potato, and 1 cup of chicken water (from when it was cooking). I've removed her supplements other than the probiotic Fortiflora that her vet gave us.

Yum!

Terra's current routine in the mornings is to play a lot with the boarding Welshie, eat her breakfast, do some calm play/chewing on toys, and then fall back asleep. At this point I want her to get lots of free play with the Welshie to build her confidence with other dogs.

At 4 pm we had our first week of puppy class. (It's open enrollment so new puppy owners can join at any time.) I emailed the trainer ahead of time and let her know that Terra is nervous around both new dogs and people so we would be staying on the side lines until she was comfortable. The class is taught at a basketball court and sports field at a school, so we had plenty of distance. Terra didn't even notice the other dogs except when they walked toward the grassy area for potty breaks.

So faaarrr awaaaayy

I brought two bunny fur tugs, her pound of cooked chicken for dinner, a mat, and a 15 foot long line. I clipped the long line to the back of her harness and let her lead the way in the grassy field. At first her head was low and her ears were back, but after just a minute or two she relaxed her body language. She wandered to the pile of stuff I'd set down on the ground and sniffed out the bag of chicken. She manded to ask for chicken (thank you Puppy Culture!) and shifted her front paws excitedly. I gave her a whole bunch of chicken and she kept asking for more. I tried to get her to play but she was in food mode.

Chicken!

I LOVE this collar from 2 Hounds Design. It has plants and bunnies and unicorns!

The class instructor came over and sat down in the shade. Terra immediately walked over with a wagging tail  and sniffed her, and I handed her some chicken as well. I was delighted at how social Terra was with her.

After the trainer left she sent over a mother and ~10 year old son. (Their puppy was with the instructor in the meantime.) They also sat down and waited. The mother was great about coaching her son on how to be calm and polite around a nervous dog. Terra was curious about the woman but nervous enough about the boy that those feelings were almost equal and she stayed in place. I talked to her, per her, and stepped forward one step. That gave Terra enough security to also move closer one step at a time. Once she was within sniffing distance, I passed big hunks of chicken to the humans and they both fed her and pet her chest. In retrospect I should have given her a bit longer to sniff them before I handed over the chicken, to give her natural sociability a chance to kick in more. After a few minutes she moved away and laid down with her back to everyone. The woman and son slowly stood up, one at a time, and returned to the class.

I thought about leaving then but Terra rolled onto her back and let me pet her belly (until she got mouthy and I put a toy in her mouth). Then we got up to head back to the car. Terra sniffed around new areas of the grassy field with relaxed body language. We went by a large plastic garbage bag. She curved around it warily, then slowly approached to sniff it. Lots of praise!! She walked right over a metal grate in the ground. Woo!

The students from the next class started to arrive before ours was done (good for them) and unfortunately the group was standing closer than Terra was comfortable. I made the decision that it would be better to hurry her into the car rather than to move away and be stuck there for another 15 minutes. One of the pups was barking and that was making her nervous.

I hope that during the next class I can get her to run around and play with me. We'll only go closer to the rest of the class if she's willing to play.

She slept in her crate while I trained the Welshie, then initiated another round of intense wrestling and biting. So she wasn't exhausted from class, which tells me that I did well in orchestrating everything.

She hasn't pooped since this morning, so it looks like the sweet potato is helping!

I did her nails at the end of the night when she was too tired to really notice. They had barely grown since last time but the point is to do them frequently and just take teeny pieces off while the pup is relaxed.