Building Confidence
Happy TGIF Day! It’s been a busy week: I’ve been working hard on helping Glimmer master her basics, as well as doing long-line work, distraction training, and shaping work to help build her confidence and overcome her anxieties. She’s made fantastic progress. She’s getting better at maintaining the correct heel position during the walk, she’s coming to me instead of trying to run away from me when she gets nervous, and her anxieties about traffic signs and traffic cones is all but gone. She’s also made remarkable improvements in her sit-stay and down-stay when we’re in busy locations like stores, and she’s been doing it all without food rewards as motivators.
Beginning next week, I’ll be adding vehicle training to the exercises. Although she has never had a bad experience in or even near it, Glimmer is very anxious about the car. She can get in with no trouble, but getting her out calmly is a real challenge. She has a tendency to try to bolt the second the door is opened. She must overcome this and learn to exit calmly, go into an immediate sit position, and hold that position until she is released.
All in all, Glimmer is doing an awesome job. If she continues progressing as she is, she just might be ready to take the CGN test before the end of the year.
Have a great weekend, everyone, and remember to stay calm and lead on…
Angel Dog
Good Monday to everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend. It’s a long weekend here in Calgary – a Civic Holiday – so we get an extra day to recharge our internal batteries, have fun, and get rid of excess mental and physical energy. Gotta love long weekends. 🙂
On Saturday, a huge storm system rolled through the city, bringing surge rain, high winds, and hail ranging in size from marble to golf-ball. Glimmer and I got caught out in the open in that storm. A neighbor saw us and gave us shelter in his garage, as well as a warm towel with which to dry off. It was a kindness that will never be forgotten. The storm itself was also a catalyst for positive and lasting change in the relationship between me and my dog, Glimmer. She’s had trust issues since her first bad experience with another dog, three and half years ago. We have a long way to go, but thanks to that storm – and the actions I took to protect her – the foundation work I’ve been doing with her is finally going forward.
In other news, I am pushing ahead with preparations for the CGN test. During one of our training walks, Glimmer and I encountered a family with toddlers, and Glimmer immediately went to greet them. Although she was very excited, she showed remarkable self-restraint and offered them only gentleness. As I watched her, I realized that of all the things she can do, her greatest abilities are with children.
Since she came into our lives at a mere 5 weeks of age, I have worked to teach Glimmer as many different tasks as possible, trying to find that one extra-special affinity every dog has so that I could build on it and help her fulfill her purpose. Seeing her interacting with the little ones gave me the answers I needed.
With help from a very special trainer, I am getting Glimmer pre-tested and then prepared for the CGN test. When she earns her Therapy Dog vest and badge, she’ll be taken to the hospitals to visit the sick children. She loves all humans – she’s very social that way – but children are what she’s most drawn to.
Dogs teach us many things. They teach us how to live in the moment, how to get the most out of life, and so much more. But they also teach us where their greatest happiness lies. For some, that happiness lies in herding work; for others, it is finding and rescuing lost humans. And for some – like Glimmer – happiness is being with children, loving them, comforting them, and making them feel less lonely for awhile. I have known since she came into our lives that Glimmer is not an ordinary dog. Indeed, I have often referred to her as an angel – because she is so extraordinary in so many ways. Now, it’s time to share her with those who most need her…
Happy Dawgs Obedience Training 