Progress (or Be Careful What You Wish For)

I have never worked so hard to socialize a dog before.  The puppy we adopted in November last year was terrified of everything.  Now Indigo doesn't see any reason not to jump on everything that moves to see if it wants to play.  Progress, right?  (We are trying to teach her not to jump on people...)

We took Indigo to puppy classes. The first day I had to carry her into the store and then she barely moved from between Iggy's feet. About halfway through class she decided she might like to play with the other pupil, Brutus, a Mastiff-Bulldog mix only 6 weeks old. He lived with 2 other dogs and was certainly interested in saying hi. By the end of class Indie had developed what I like to call the Rob Blake Hip Check - a move where she nuzzles alongside Brutus, then whips around in a circle and smacks him with her butt. That first week Brutus would go sprawling. By the last week she was tugging at her leash to get into the store and greet everyone -- and her little hip checks into Brutus (who by then outweighed her by 20 lbs) only sent her sprawling.

 

I used to walk her and Radar at lunchtime.  

But after Radar went to doggie heaven in February (miss you, big dog!), the little dog spent most of our lunchtime walks trying to stay between my feet as we walked, presumably for protection. It's a scary world without your protector. Eventually she got to where she'd once again walk at the end of the leash instead of tripping me constantly. Then a bike might ride by as it got to be springtime and she was pulling at the leash in the other direction trying to get away. A few walks later she was barking at them like, "get off my path!" Eventually she got used to the bikes whizzing past us and they barely warrant a playful lunge. Until the day we came across a bike some kid had left on the path while they went to explore the river. What the hell was that? A bike without a rider? That certainly warranted the ears going back, the tail between the legs, all the hair on her spine pointing up like a mohawk, slinking up at an angle so as to have a better escape route and a growl meant to be menacing!

Once the 90-degree-days got here our lunchtime walks got shorter until I had the brilliant idea that I could walk her before work. That light bulb went off for me on a Wednesday night. So Thursday and Friday I got up a little earlier and we went for our walk in the morning. On Saturday I was all set to sleep in (yay!) except that around 5:30am *someone* thought they might sit on my feet because, hey, don't we walk every morning at 5:30 am?!? (You know how it takes 30 days for humans to form a habit? I guess with dogs it takes 2...)

 

About the only area we haven't made progress is with barking at the boys next door when they're playing in the back yard, barking at people on the barkpath that goes by our back yard (you might call that a bike path, but not if you lived here) and eating TV remotes. We've ordered so many replacement remotes that Amazon probably thinks we run a resale business. We humans can't seem to learn the habit of putting the remotes up on the highest shelf when we leave the house. 

Anyways, happy 1st birthday to Indigo!