They have been out and about on their own for the last three sessions. It was time to see what, if any, impact these one-on-one outings have had on Lily's self-confidence. And it was time to resume their Level Two learning.
While waiting for Dale to arrive, Lily performed a 12 MINUTE "Wait at the Open Gate Zen" as I moved between house and car with preparations for Dale's arrival. 12 minutes! During which a man and his little furry white dog passed as well as another of the neighbor's 3 cats. Lily was working hard at controlling herself, as strings of drool dripped from her jaw. But control herself she did. Yee Ha! When Dale arrived, she needed a reminder to remain standing with her leash loose and lazy. But then, wait she did.
All this as a precursor to their session together.
We talked about thresholds, Dale and I. And about the neighbor dog behind the fence down the street that attacks the gate when Lily passes by. We talked about how to use this event as a learning experience for Lily and how to turn this into a positive. How to "explain" to Lily the behavior that is expected of her, despite the behavior of the other dog. About setting limits.
Dale's plan was to repeat their successful walk of Monday. Since I would be involved in today's session, he would let Lily tell him how well she could handle going off without me. No matter what, they would stay away no longer than 15 minutes.
I shouldn't have worried. Dale took Lily's leash and off they went. Lily didn't even glance back until they reached the corner and disappeared out of sight.
BUT
Before reaching the corner, they encountered the neighbor dog that attacks the gate when Lily passes by. And they passed a patch of grass that must have contained a LOT of information because Lily pulled to get there. Dale handled each individual situation with classic backing up and moving forward until Lily was able to walk past both while maintaining a lazy leash and continue on with their walk.
CARPE DIEM!
How often we stay married to our plans! When marvelous learning situations unexpectedly present themselves. Instead of "going with the flow". Instead of putting contingency plans into effect.
This comes with experience. This comes with having acquired many training tools in our "toolbox". In the course of Lily's training, how many times I have driven MILES just to set up such training opportunities!
We abandon our focus on lazy leashes in order to get into class in time. We insist on shaping the dog into the box even though she is showing incredible propensity to volunteer some other equally wonderful new skill. We focus on A and B when a perfect C opportunity presents itself.
These thoughts led to an interesting conversation with Dale when they returned 15 minutes later. With Mission Accomplished, I might add!! Three cheers and a big hurrah!
We talked about being married to a plan. We talked about contingency plans (What would you do if the charging dog was free and not behind a fence?) We talked about seizing the moment. And we talked about not letting others set your agenda. Good training "meat" to sink our teeth into.
Then for the remainder of the session we went into the patio and introduced Dale to Shaping Nonsense!
And just had fun!
