I left my house at 6:15 tonight on a mission. I packed the puppy, some wonderful treats, her gentle leader, and a clicker. We went into "town" (relative, as the town I live in has about 650 people) and did some serious work. As I parked, two people started walking towards the car with dogs. I body blocked from outside the car but she had already seen and was vocalizing. I thought about turning around to head home at that point but decided to wait it out. She settled soon after the dogs had passed and I was able to get her out of the car alert, and ready to work.
We walked by a mini schnauzer in a yard, with just a road length between us. I didn't plan on this happening but she was absolutely wonderful. Rather than my previous thoughts of "if we just move quickly it'll be okay," I stopped and let her look. There was no vocalizing and she was turning to eat after the 4th or 5th click (I put the food under her chin at first). When she started breaking her gaze to make eye contact with me, I told her how brilliant she is and we moved on, c/t the whole way. She did glance over to the dog a few times, but she continued to move and worked nicely!
As we were walking down another side street, a golden retriever (on a flexi...) walked about a block away from us. She alerted with her ears but reoriented after the click every. single. time.
Our once around the block walk took about 20 minutes but we got some brilliant work in!
My mission is to get out with her at least 3-4 times/week. If we can have more situations like today, we'll keep making GREAT progress!
I pulled into the driveway at 6:45, fed her dinner and now she's resting. Being a good dog is hard work!
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