Anxiety at the new spot

8/9/08

The ear is better but I think the Polaramine is affecting her. We did go out to Whiteman, a bit later than I have been going. The traffic was horrible. The place was almost deserted, and no one was at our spot. I went and sat at the picnic tables for a few minutes, there was a little barking tantrum that quickly stopped.

I decided to bring her out to the picnic tables. In retrospect that was a bad idea. She was super aroused, but was sniffing intensely rather than scanning. She hit the end of the leash repeatedly. It was hard to get her attention but I did reward when she responded to her name. At least most of the time- I was not calm and focussed, so I missed some opportunities, and rate of reinforcement wasn’t high as it should have been. Tried to sit and relax while she buzzed back and forth on the end of the leash at the picnic table. She was scanning, sniffing, pacing, pulling, staring (at birds, I think). She would re-orient, but was just buzzing.

I gave her a drink and put her back in the car. I took a nice relaxing walk. I patted her quietly in her crate in the car when I returned, and she was still panting hard and hot. I got her some more water and we headed home. Once there she shook a bit when she saw Dion and went into greeting mode, so I think the Polaramine is affecting her as well.

My conclusion is that we need to do a lot more work. I’m not sure if we need to just do relaxation in / by the car first, and really control the anxiety sniffing, or if I should just put her on a long line and let her get it out of her system. I think the former, but I am a bit of a control freak.