Day 22 (10/02/17): playing at park, new people and dog, nose work

Terra weighed in at 49.5 lbs on the vet's scale. She said hello to a couple new staff members. She happily walked up to one standing but was wary of the two sitting in big black rolling chairs.

We drove to Cooper School Park. We arrived at 2:15. Terra walked and sniffed around under her own initiative. She hid between my legs when a man walked by 15 feet away, and retreated farther behind me when he called out "hello doggy." She resumed exploring. She laid down on the grass.

At 2:30 the elementary school next door ended their day. I hadn't known that was coming and was worried, but Terra handled it better than I'd expected. She watched the kids walking by from her shady spot in the middle of the park, and sniffed the breeze. She didn't show any overt stress signals, just curiosity. At 2:37 she stood up and resumed sniffing around. She even wanted to approach three kids playing nearby (I didn't let her as it was not a controlled enough situation).

At 2:45 we started playing, switching up between jaw and paw wrestling, running, cuddling, and resting. We both had a grand time. Twice more she tried to approach the three kids, with her tail wagging higher and faster each time. But I don't want to let her interact with kids I don't know at this point in time.

At 3 pm we returned to the car. Terra spooked when a girl came around a corner and turned right toward us. She tried to run directly away but I used the leash to steer her off the side instead.

She went into her crate for a nap. More demand barking put through extinction. Ugh.

I had invited a couple clients to come over with their six month old Dalmatian, Beedo. I particularly wanted Terra to meet the boyfriend, and then the pup. We were outside when they arrived, which gave Terra a good sightline and plenty of warning that new people were approaching. She quickly went up to the fence to say hello to the girlfriend. She backed away for a moment when the boyfriend came up, but he talked sweetly to her and put his fingers through the fence, and she tentatively came up to sniff his hand. When they came into the yard, again she approached the woman but retreated briefly from the man. As the minutes went by, she was willing to get closer to him, and at the 25 minute mark she came all the way up and pushed into him for a cuddle.

Soon after that, I had them bring Beedo over. Terra came right up to the fence to sniff him. As he came through the gate, she let him sniff her but tensed and slightly tucked her tail, and then walked away for about 30 seconds. She came back and they sniffed each other again. Beedo wanted to sniff all around and wasn't pushy with her. After a couple of minutes she wandered off and found a big wood chip to chew on. Then Beedo did the same.

It wasn't until Terra went all the way up to the boyfriend, and then placed her paws on his shoulders, that Beedo thought about playing with her - she had been too quiet before. Now he pawed at her head and shoulders. Terra responded in kind - "oh, we're playing now?" And they were off to the races! They ran around and around the yard, and wrestled. They played for an hour (with self-imposed breaks).

Kangaroo-puppy!

I signed up for a gold spot in Nose Work 101: Introduction to Nose Work at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Class officially started yesterday and my vials and scent q-tips arrived today. I had ordered a kit with the NACSW scents (birch, anise, clove). I hope that the AKC scent sport will take off locally and there will be more opportunities to trial, but for now I'm just assuming that we'll do NACSW.

The first homework assignment is an IYC-style targeting exercise: hold treats in one hand and a hot tin in the other, and reward the dog at source when they choose to check out the tin. Terra startled at the strong smell. She did quickly choose to move toward the tin rather than futilely nosing at my treat fist, however she's not at all "drivey." She will do a few reps of one behavior, then take a lap around the room and drink some water, then sniff the floor, then either return to work or just lie down. That's okay - her ability to focus and desire to stay in the game are slowly increasing over time. It just doesn't make for snappy video.

We also practiced stand-stays and we can sometimes get to 4-5 seconds. She is rarely manding in confusion. But she will walk off and sniff around every few treats. Gotta keep it short and sweet, and give breaks before she decides to take them on her own.