Mississippi and I had such an amazingly productive day. After our morning walk, she ate a big bowl of food. She hasn’t been eating regularly and didn’t have anything at all yesterday so this is such a great thing. I left her home in the main part of the house instead of putting her in her room while I went and had some human time down at the cafe. When I returned, the house was still in one piece and she was very calm. On our walks today we improved greatly on waiting and sitting at all the corners before we cross. I rarely treated her at the corners unless there was just too many other distractions for her to concentrate. She still pulled on her leash and I didn’t try the harness today but she pulls less than she’s been pulling. I may try the harness again tomorrow. It’s a little bit big on her.
We spent some time in the back yard and I felt confident enough to take her off her leash in the back yard for the first time. We did pretty good. She got to roll around in the cut grass and we ran and played with the chuckit. She’s not a very good fetcher and is much more interested at stomping on whatever you throw then just runs off to find something else to play with. She was pretty good at staying out of my vegetable beds.
She learned some new tricks today. I got her to go from ‘sit’ to ‘down’ several times. She is also now very good at ‘turn to the left’ ‘turn to the right’. I also got her to follow me for a little bit off leash.
Today Mississippi met Gus for the first time and went in the backyard without her leash while one of the dogs next door was in the yard. They barked and got way too excited but it was a good solid effort. We’ll keep trying.
She barks way, way, way less at people and dogs now. It still happens but with less frequency and intensity. On our evening walk, I saw some dogs coming so I had her sit. She sat quietly and let me pet her while 3 different dogs walked by. She didn’t bark or even start breathing heavily. I thought that was totally amazing. She also met two other dogs today. A very nice woman told me it was ok if I wanted to try and bring mississippi over to meet her dog. The meeting was a little too exciting for Mississippi but she didn’t bark, she was very good. It’s the closest she’s come to meeting another dog since we got her. Later on we ran into a woman and her very large, very barky hound. Mississippi was excited but didn’t bark once, and a young boy came up and asked if he could pet her. I couldn’t calm her down enough but I felt like she did ok for having a huge barky dog and a young kid around her at the same time. The woman and I had a nice conversation while her dog barked and Mississippi stayed under my legs.
Missi was very good at ‘leave it’ today. She picked up a few things like wrappers that she knew were bad and she dropped them as soon as I said ‘leave it’. Today she pooped in her own yard for the first time. She let me work for quite a while today without whining and she didn’t pull any of her stunts like mess with the records or get on the couch. When we got home from our evening walk, I was so proud of her, I gave her a special doggy bone treat. Then I started cleaning up for dinner. I opened the door a tiny crack and blocked the door with my legs so I could just put something on the steps. She bolted through my legs and took off. She started to try and play case in the driveway but I was having none of it. I tried to get her to come by offering a treat which completely didn’t work. She took off down the street and was out of site in no time. I grabbed her leash and ran to go find her. I couldn’t find her anywhere but ran into another dog and owner. They hadn’t seen her so I started to try up another street. a minute later I heard barking near our house so I ran back. The big dog I’d just seen was barking her head off at Missy who had run back into our house. She came out a little bit to greet me. I leashed her and took her inside and told her how much she had scared me.
She’s been more jumpy and bitey today. I’m not tolerating it but it was still happening when Tom came home. We’ve been having a few ‘too bad’ time outs in her room. Hopefully she’ll catch on soon that we don’t like it.
We’ve got friends coming over tonight for dinner. She met my friend Gus and met Bradley for the second time. So now she’ll meet Jon and Summer, four new people in one day. Phew!
Mississippi, thanks for a much better day. Yesterday I was crying and drinking, today I am proud and happy. Each day is going to be better and better. We go to an orientation on Friday night for doggy school and I’m excited to get her into some classes around other dogs.