Snuggles, TTouch and confidence
We went tracking yesterday, but I didn’t put Amika on any tracks because of the ongoing urinary infection. I figure getting dehydrated while concentrating on a track wouldn’t do it any good. But I managed to collect a urine sample and drop at the vet’s on the way out- hopefully they’ll get back to us with the right antibiotic soon. Amika did have two good runs in the pine plantation before and after tracks were laid and run. I worked on being more confident about her, and I felt a lot better at morning tea, talking dogs.
I’ve decided that one of the major problems with Amika’s reactivity now is my reactivity in response to hers. So I let her bark at a couple of other dogs stretching their legs and just kept giving her “what are you on about?” signals and occasionally telling her “enough”. I did the same this morning when having breakfast on the front porch. She was out there tethered and barked at the neighbor dog when she saw it around the corner of the fence, through the picket fence. I also tried walking off into the house – that is me doing avoidance. Not useful for Amika. Then I tried rubbing her ears and neck while she was barking. But pretty much the whole time I remained calm about it. She didn’t get really over-aroused as she has done in the past, but in both cases the other dogs were at distance.
What I really need to do in these situations, having thought more about it, is do “open bar” for the other dog. That is, treats rain from the sky when other dogs show up. So I’ll need to be prepared in those situations next time. I reckon a slab of cheddar cheese in the gob might improve her opinion of those other dogs.
Last night, I sat down on the dog bed in the office and Amika came and curled up next to me while I read the TTouch book and patted her. She stayed there for a while until I got emotional about some sad animal story (I get emotional very easily when reading sad animal stories). She left for quite a while, going to sleep in her crate in the hall. Later on, as I was reading and thinking about her, she came back in and curled up beside me again. My mental output was something like “I’d like more together time, and I’m almost done reading. When I’m done I’ll let you out to pee.” And I did, but only after I’d set the book down and tried some stuff on her. And this time, she allowed me to practice some TTouch circular finger moves on her, and didn’t seem to mind. I threw in lots of regular pats and tummy rubs too.
Together time with the dog is addictive. I also need to move on with the training plan – I did a few sessions at the park last week. Now I just have to wait for my cracked radiator to be replaced so we can keep it up.
