What's that smell?

I really wish my poor little Bella would get past this extreme fear and shyness she has. She still cowers at anyone new trying to approach her and any loud noise startles the crap out of her literally! Just a bit ago hubby accidentally tripped over a cord and made a loud noise as it knocked something off of my coffee table. Bella jumped out of her skin like usual, but then I could smell it. That familiar but sickening smell... she scared herself so bad that she expressed her anal gland fluid again. This is about the 4th or 5th time she's done this now. My carpet cleaner is out of commission so thankfully it was only her bed that she got, that can be washed.

I have socialized, trained and worked with her since the day I got her, now about 7 months ago.Some days she seems to be improving, but then others she seems as bad as the day I got her home. I just don't know what else I can do to help her.

Progress

Despite the fact that I’m trying to recover from a nasty cold, Bella and I participated in our last Agility class for this session. She did very well, I’m so proud of her.

Luckily for me, since I wasn’t feeling 100%, it was a laid back class; Trainer Guy wasn’t there, so Mrs. Trainer Guy and Trainer Guys’ Step-Dad ran the class instead. It also seemed as though we were missing some people; normally we have to move fairly quickly through the course to be sure that everyone gets enough time but due to the smaller class we didn’t have to worry so much about that one.

The set up was pretty simple, we started with the teeter, went to the A-Frame, Chute (we skipped that one again), two jumps, pause table, three more jumps, tunnel (we skipped until a few times at the end of class- I’ll explain that later), dog walk and then finished with the weave poles.

Bella and I were the third team to go on the course. She is still very afraid on the teeter, as you can see by the complete tail tuck in the teeter video. But believe it or not she showed some great improvement by the end of class (when the camera wasn’t on of course) she was able to walk on and balance herself to lower the teeter without having someone else lower it for her.



Most of the other obstacles are no problem for her. We still skipped the chute; I don’t think she’s ready for that one yet. The first few times through the course we also skipped the tunnel; I didn’t want to hold everyone else up if she decided to hide in the middle again. By the end of class though, I decided to give it a try. With Hubby at one end so she couldn’t back out the wrong way, I sent her through. The first time she paused in the middle as usual but by the second and third time she was slowly crawling through, faster and faster. After everyone started to leave Mrs. Trainer Guy shortened the tunnel for us and took the curve out for Bella to practice that way. She had no problem with that and was going through the shorter straight tunnel very quickly. We definitely made some progress there!

As for the rest of it I’ll let the pictures speak for us. Overall it was a good experience and I look forward to trying it again later this spring when Trainer Guy has the next Agility class.


A Frame


Dog Walk


Pause Table


Weave Poles


We survived!

All things considered...

...last nights Agility class went very well!

We started class by warming up on the jumps. Bella is really improving on her jumping technique and she is also learning to watch me for direction. The jumps were staggered so that you had to move to the right or left to hit each jump; by the end of the night Bella was on a loose leash and watching me as I pointed to the jump I wanted her to take. It was really awesome!

While we worked on the jumps, the others took turns on the rest of the course and Trainer Guy worked with each team individually on the teeter. After about 15 minutes on the jumps, Bella and I were called over for our turn. I took a deep breath try and calm myself, I knew that it was imperative that I remain calm. I walked her up to it, she was a little unsure at first but with a little coaxing I got her on and about half way up. There Trainer Guy instructed me to calmly pet her and talk to her for reassurance. Initially he stood on the opposite side of me to help keep her on the board, but she was more nervous with him there so he backed off and I was on my own. Again I took a deep breath, and relaxed my posture. He told me to ask her to take a step with her front foot, then another and another, each time pausing to calmly praise and pet her. Once she hit the balance point he moved in and slowly lifted the back half of the teeter so that it tilted downward. She tensed up but as soon as it was down I asked her to move forward and she did. She did amazingly well! We repeated again the same way, Trainer Guy said “look she’s nervous, her whole back end is shaking but she is trusting you, she’s moving forward”. This gave me a bit of a confidence boost.

On our third attempt he backed away completely and said that he wanted her to move it on her own. I stayed close and gently held her in place, she did panic a little right before the balance point because she knew that it when she moved so would the board underneath her feet. But again with some calm praise she took that extra step and the board slowly moved to the ground and off she walked! Trainer Guy said that we should end right there on a good note. I took her to the other corner of the yard and played with and praised her. Actually out of all the dogs in the class she was one of the best ones on that particular obstacle. Some of the others went off the sides several times and took many more attempts to get over it. I was very proud of her!

The rest of the class was spent working on some of the items in the rest of the course. We skipped the tunnel, chute and unfortunately the weave poles, as he had the guide wires on them and Bella refused to go through those scary looking things. But she did very well on the Dog Walk, A Frame and jumps. She seemed very comfortable going over each of these.

Next week is “graduation”. Sadly Trainer Guy is going out of state so class will be run by someone else, but I’m looking forward to it. I'm hoping that I can get my grama or DH or someone to go and take some pictures of us. After that Agility class will begin again at the end of June. I’m considering taking it again then to continue to expose Bella to the obstacles and environment. Hopefully next time we will get through all obstacles, including the chute and tunnel, once we can get through those we will be in great shape!!!

Onward and upward!!!

First Rally Trial

Well...um...we survived. It didn't go as well as I would have hoped though. There are some things that I guess I will have to learn as I go, like how early to arrive and how much to practice/warm up before entering the ring. I think two hours was too early, and apparently I practiced what was a fairly easy course, too much. By the time we went into the ring Bella seemed burnt out and unfocused. I panicked when I couldn't get her attention and, without thinking I reached out and touched her. Bad, bad, bad me I know! I do know better than that. I guess the nerves just got me.

Anyway once I had done it the first time I knew we were screwed but I wanted her to finish the course and I did touch her a few more times to get through it. Oh well at least now I know what we need to work on. I'm going to start taking her to the park and Pet Co more and work on her focus there. Also arriving less time prior to our group, and less of a warm up should be better as well.

On the bright side, it was a great socialization experience for her. She seems to be getting much better at meeting new people. Several nice people were able to approach and pet her. We just need more time and lots of practice we'll be ready to try again in a month or two.

Here is the video that my firend took. Definately eye opening, a good example of what not to do! The next one will be better!