Porch work

Amika came out on the front porch this morning while I had breakfast. I started doing this again week before last, weather permitting. And it hasn’t been very permitting lately, with lots of wind and rain. Thinking back to the bad old days of burnout, I’d get out of bed in the morning and need to be alone for breakfast. The last thing I wanted was dog company, because I knew she’d upset me somehow. Just goes to show how much I’ve improved over the last 6 – 12 months.

This morning the sun is out intermittently, air temperature is a pleasant 15C with relatively little wind most of the time. So out we went, Amika on her 2m lead tied to the porch. This is a good time to accustom her to comings and goings that don’t have anything to do with her, and I can do the whole “confident leader” thing. When I finished eating, I decided to leave her out with me while I cleaned out the canaries and mice, who live on the front porch. Amika did great with waiting for me on the porch while I went and got stuff. She came with me on lead to throw stuff in the rubbish bin around the side of the house. She did react a bit to some of the people who passed (10am on a Sunday morning, a few people out on foot).

When she reacted (low growls, sometimes some woofs and hackles) I was able to get her attention either by calling her name or if that didn’t get it, giving a tug on the lead. I didn’t have to reel her in- the tug got her attention and she would move towards me. I sometimes had to repeat it to get her back from the distracton, but it worked and she got a handfull of kibble on the porch when she got there. She was able to tear herself from the distractions and eat too. And the eating seemed to help defuse the situation for her, thought it is hard to tell because they moved on past the house as she ate her treats.

While we were at it, I decided to change to a 5m lead. I had a drag line that needed a loop added to the end, so worked on that mostly on the front porch too. I had to go inside for the bits that required a match to melt ends (because of wind) and she was good about staying on the porch and waiting for me to come back and give her a treat. Once the new line was done and installed I showed her around the increased radius of front yard. Then a neighbor kid (or dog, I didn’t see)  suddenly appeared from the corner of the yard and she had a strong reaction (they left, she kept on reacting). She ran towards them, hackles up barking and hit the end of the lead. There was a bit of a yelp and then I was able to get her back with a combo of verbal and tugs on the line.

So she needs to be in a harness when she’s on that line. I’m thinking that having an elastic cord from collar to lead will help give her that signal to turn back without damaging her neck. The more I work with her, the more I don’t like having a hard line attached to her head. It not only increases chance of injury, but also may add to feelings of distress. I’m not sure, but the head halter, which was used abusively in our session with the incompetent trainer, may have emotional associations all on its own.

So now I need to figure out which of our 4 harnesses I should use: tracking, sledding, car, halti harness. They’ve all got good and bad points.