Fear Period

Claire (1yo, female, Field Spaniel) who belongs to Audrey's breeder Gayle, has been coming to class with me to try and work on her fear issues and has been making very good and steady progress in just the few times we've worked with her. That being said, I was hoping Audrey would be a magical puppy that never went through a fear period at all, much less several different ones throughout her first year.

So yesterday we went over to Central Office (Dad's office which is full of dozens of people, slick floors, random boxes, janitors, tables, Dad's fish tank, etc.) She was super shy about meeting people when they started squealing about how gorgeous she is and walking towards her with their hands out, but once they either squatted down or ignored her for a second she was much more willing to come up and be pet (or allow me to pick her up and get pet - which I won't be able to do for much longer as she's getting quite heavy).

We went around the office and got several weird questions such as "Is this the mother or the father of that little puppy that ya'll brought a few weeks ago?" To which Dad and I looked at each other and Dad said "Uh, this IS that puppy... she just got bigger."
And I said several: "No, she's still not a Cocker Spaniel. Yes, her paws are big, she'll be at least 40-50lbs. No, she's not related to the Basset Hound. Yes, she is related to the winner of Westminster (Sussex Spaniel). No, she's not an outside dog just because she's "big".

Then Dad had a meeting so we hung around for a little while and she ate some cookies and practiced some sit and stand/stay. Then we had a few more minutes until everyone got home from work so I figured as a treat for being such a good girl we would go to the park. Bad idea.

The park was the first time I've ever seen her really flip out (not counting when I dropped the box of Milkbones on her). As I was getting her out of the car at the park, I had a fleeting thought that maybe I should keep her car harness on her just in case she flipped out because I figured she could probably slip out of her leather collar. That was the only good idea of that entire outing.

We first had to walk on gravel in the little kid's playground and that freaked her out but she quickly got over it. Then as we were walking to the playground, a Mom was wheeling her son in one of those bright red plastic car-shaped strollers. The stroller itself wasn't scary but it happened to be wheeling on the sidewalk which was covered in pieces of gravel from the playground so it was making double the amount of noise. At this point Audrey was literally darting all over the place and running from side to side trying to get away (thank goodness for the harness). She was pulling me so hard to leave that she actually left nail scratch marks in the sidewalk.

After a few seconds they stopped wheeling the stroller and she calmed down a tiny bit. At this point though she was completely covered in stress-related dandruff (which I first discovered exists a few years ago when Mackenzie was young), panting, and her legs were shaking. We sat at a park bench and a nice woman came over and chatted with us for a while. I told her we were here for socializing and she invited her son to come over and pet Audrey. She was very nice and told her son to approach slowly and allow Audrey to sniff his hand before petting her. All of this she was 100% fine with. I'm convinced it was the sounds of the park and not the actual kids or people that freaked her out.

We sat at the bench for a while and then moved to sitting on the grass in front of the biggest playground area (huge plastic slides, gravel, swings, the stroller and about 12 kids and assorted adults) to watch the action. She calmed down a bit and a little girl came up and pet her for several minutes (again she was totally fine).

Finally we got up and she pulled me like hell back towards the car.


So we're dealing with a fear period. Hopefully it will pass soon enough with some consistent training and weekly outings and we will be able to go to the park again with Mackenzie or one of the other two and she will see that it is their favorite place in the world and there's nothing to be scared of. Hopefully.

Speaking of Mackenzie, she and I are entered in an Obedience and Rally trial in Kerrville, Tx in two weeks! I'm pretty giddy about it.

Two Weeks Progress

Like I said earlier, in just two weeks I see a significant amount of progress in raising her pasterns. My pretty little werewolf.

Gaiting

Last night we practiced some gaiting and free-stacking in the driveway and down the street. She's really quite good at maintaining a nice little trot and a loose leash. We did that for a while and then we practiced free-stacking right in front of me instead of to the side of me. She's not as clear on that concept because we've never done it before, but she'll get it soon enough. I had Mom play judge mainly because we don't want Audrey to end up like Mackenzie who can't function anytime Mom OR Dad is anywhere near the ring. Of course Mom thought Audrey looked great even when she had one leg totally out of place like a GSD show stack. :)

After doing that for a few minutes I still had some bait left so I ran inside and traded dogs. Now I know this blog is about Audrey, but I must talk about Mackenzie for just a few sentences. When I came inside last night I was sniffling and breathless from the cold front that swooped in while we were out there and all I could say was "Mackenzie is such a BADASS."

It was the middle of 5PM traffic, two other people were walking their dogs (both stopped to say Hello and watch us for a while), neighbors were coming home from work or unloading groceries, cars were speeding down the road, and Mackenzie was focused enough to HEEL in the STREET with me. We worked pace changes (normal, fast, slow), about turns, fronts, finishes, everything I could think of before it got too cold and windy to function. She was absolutely incredible. She is so ready for the San Antonio show at the end of February. Too bad we didn't enter. :(

Stacking/Pasterns at 17wks

A couple weeks ago Dad took some pictures of Audrey and I (she was 17wks at the time) practicing her show stack. I was thinking she was looking pretty damn good, but once we (her breeders and I) checked out the pics, we noticed that she was looking quite down in her pasterns (front wrist area).
We've started some supplements (just Vit C and Fish Oil so far, I'm still waiting on the "real" supplements to come in the mail) and I constructed a raised feeding station for her out of a cardboard box cause I'm super crafty like that and I can honestly say that today I see some subtle improvement. I will post some updated pics later so we can track her progress on here.

Audrey's sister Quest is doing fine by the way. :)