Meltdown
I decided last week that Amika has been doing so well ‘out’ in the environment that it was time to join a reactive Shepherd class. I called on Saturday to let the trainer know that we’ll be there on Tuesday, and of course we’ve been getting stressed ever since!
The weather has been very rainy most of the week, so there were lots of neighbor activities to hear, and Amika has had a couple of incidents of getting her hackles up and barking in the yard. Yesterday morning, Amika noticed the new boat next door. It is sitting in the driveway, right next to our fence, and is quite a bit taller. You can see the neighbors in it, fiddling with boatie stuff. She noticed them while we were in the office by looking out the window. I’m not surprised it started her barking- you don’t usually see people standing over the top of a 2m fence! And to put icing on the cake, some dude had the nerve to walk a small dog down the other side of the street right after we loaded Amika in the car, so she barked her head off at it just before we went out.
We’ve been going out to our regular spot most days, doing a bit of loose lead walking / orienting to me practice. Then I let her off to run, sniff and play fetch. Having my partner there not only gives us a lookout for trouble (other dogs coming) but gives us an opportunity to practice the ‘pulling makes you go backwards, keeping an eye on me lets you move forwards’ concept. The other bonus is there are two people to run back and forth between. She has been very comfortable with this.
Yesterday was Sunday and we went anyway, despite Amika deciding that today she would get anxious about things around the house and in the back yard. I figured the exercise would help. That may have been a mistake, as the weather wasn’t disgusting, and people were out with their dogs. We had to wait in the car while one passed. Now, dogs do pass through this area all the time, so I had assumed that Amika was used to smelling other dogs around. Not so.
We got out of the car as usual. My partner wandered off towards the stream as usual. And Amika started having trouble right there. We know that she gets upset when one of her people gets further off than she likes, but it hasn’t been too bad lately. I’m told that this is called virtual separation anxiety (VSA). She had been extra whiney on the way and started showing this again as we began the walking on lead practice we do every time. Then the wind changed, and she went loopy. She was showing hackles, pulling hard and barking- even though there was no dog in sight, the scent was fresh. And it was over towards the stream where her other person was. And silly me, I hadn’t brought her harness- she was pulling on a flat collar, which probably didn’t help.
Amika got so hyped that I turned around and took her back to the car. I let her into her crate, made her lie down and fixed her a bowl of water. She was panting hard, not due to activity or air temperature, but anxiety. She had actually seemed relieved to head for the car too. Certainty I guess.
After a couple of minutes off and some water, I got her out again, repeated the leash exercise, but with much lower criteria and more quickly. She did better, but was still fixated on the scent of the other dog for a while. We kept her on lead, walked around and my partner spotted another dog way off in the distance. It too passed, this time without notice from Amika. I made the decision to let her off lead, but we stayed up near the car next to the car park. I got her ball out and tossed it, calling her back to me after each catch. So we got in about three tosses and runs before yet another dog was being walked in our direction. It was time to go home. Fortunately, Amika didn’t notice that dog either, being busy crating up and finding treats on the way out.
She was wiped for a while after we got home. After some rest, I played two-kong fetch in the back yard a couple of times, making sure she was panting hard before we headed in. I figure the endorphines would at least make her happier, even if she was edgy with adrenaline and cortisol and all those other stress hormones. Today she is more apt to alert to noises, quieter when resting and I won’t be taking her to the park. Unfortunately, I have a volunteer coming this afternoon, so the mad greeting will happen. I’m tempted to shut her in the office, but will see what she is like this afternoon.
In any case, I’m not impressed that after a few weeks of really good stuff, we’ve got to get past this anxiety stuff again- right before going to class. We may not stay very long on Tuesday night, but at least the trainer will know who she’s dealing with. We’re going to have to start WAY off in the distance.
