Good Friday

I know I haven't written as often as I should, but don't think that just because Audrey isn't going to be a conformation dog that we haven't been working on her. Every week we still have our socialization adventures. At 6mos old she is an absolute terror in the house, but extremely shy when either people come over, or she meets people/sees people outside of our house, or something new and scary happens. So every week we go on adventures.

As I wrote in a previous post, the scariest place on earth to her was the park we go to on Sprague Rd. Since her first time there I always bring her back with Mackenzie. This park is probably on Mackenzie's Top Ten Fave Parks, so she's always super excited and that has really helped Audrey get over her fears. We've gone almost every week for the past few weeks and the progress is coming slowly. There are several different entrances and playgrounds in the park so we've yet to hang out at all of them.
Note: playgrounds by the skateboard park are NOT a good place to take a fearful dog. Sounds of young boys skateboarding = even bomb-proof Mackenzie flips out a little bit.

Other than that park and PetSmart on a weekly basis, she goes with us for a car ride nearly every night either to the pharmacy, or to pick up food. We also go on walks in the neighborhood where she sees/hears other dogs, cars, people, big black trashbags full of horror, and terrifying wooden Easter Bunny lawn decorations.

Her other adventures include several visitors to our house on a weekly basis. In just this past week we've had my best friend Ashlee and her boyfriend Ben visiting from London, Matt's friends Nelson and Robert, and my friend Marianne all come over at different times. She will alternate between coming up to sniff them, running away terrified, and then coming over to sniff again when no one is looking at her. So we're working on that.

Today however, was an extra special treat. Dad and Mom are off from work because it is Good Friday so Dad invited us to go with him to Lowe's. Being the great outdoorsy place that it is, they allow dogs in the plant section outside. Thanks Lowe's!

Overall she did extremly well. There were a few tough spots; the forklift, the birds cooing scared her (worst bird dog ever!), people pushing the big baskets/wagons full of plants, etc. The great thing was, she recovered very quickly from most of the incidents. When we first went in she would spit out her favorite banana flavored cookies. Once we were in though, in between short bursts of flipping out, she was jumping on me asking for more cookies. Several people commented on how beautiful she was and I had a silly conversation with a husband and wife outside on our way back to the car.

Wife admiring the dog (also wearing white pants so it was my turn to flip out that Audrey was going to jump on her with muddy paws): She is soooo beautiful! ::turns to husband:: Look honey, look at this pretty dog!
Me: She's just a baby. She's only six months old and shy so we're working on that.
Wife: Oh My! Six months! She's a big girl! Cocker Spaniel?
Me: No, she's a Field Spaniel.
::Husband finally turns around:: What's the difference?
Me: Field Spaniels are bigger. They are a medium sized hunting dog.
Husband: A what?
Me: Hunting dog.
Husband: Hunting what?
Me: Birds...
Husband: Is that what you use her for?
Me: No. I'm going to show her in obedience... (at this point I trail off because obviously Rude Husband was done being interested and had already started walking away).

She took cookies from another lady's hand (one of dad's friends) and sniffed her and her husband, and she was interested in sniffing people who came up to her. What she really doesn't like is when people reach over her head to pet her. If they would just open their hand and let her sniff their palm first she would be fine. But somewhere in dog history some idiot decided that dogs needed to pet on the head and everyone and their mother tries to do it like that. For the record ALL my dogs hate that, especially Spencer who is the master of avoiding petting.

But overall Audrey was really great. She was panting and smiling by the end (which is the normal goofy Audrey face) and strutted out of Lowe's like a little champ. Then we went to Burger King to pick up breakfast and she got a hash brown for being a good girl and also go to finish the rest of her bag of treats once we got home.

Luckily I think that since Audrey is young, with enough adventures like these she will be fine. I worked on Mackenzie's severe dog aggression/reactivity for years before she was able to be shown at 5yo. So there's always hope. :)