Coco Parties and Goes to Town

Coco and Pogo excitedly monitoring the breakfast preparations

We're learning more about Coco's parameters of comfort, even though that's a moving and gray border.

We've taken her to various parks for walks, and they've progressively been more interesting than frightening for her, with notable exceptions.  But even those exceptions are falling away.  Men, loud children ... Just as I was beginning to think I'd have to really target those carefully, she's begun to get over them on her own.

Saturday night, we had family over, including a tall man, a short woman, and a 3 year old boy.  This same little boy (oh, excuse me!  I was corrected about that repeatedly: he's a "BIG boy!"  ;) ) is the one who Coco greeted with apparent happy curiosity a week ago, later being frightened by him when he rode his father's shoulders outside.  This visit was all-indoors, and I put the x-pen as a fence across the cul de sac at the end of the hallway, right next to the bathroom door.  Last time, I'd draped it with blankets, to shut down on some of the visual stimulation, but I decided not to do that this time.  All three dogs started out in there, muzzled, with beds and Coco's open-door crate.  While she did go in the crate a couple times, mostly she stayed out on the beds where she could see most of the action.

Pogo trying to shove the x-pen out of the way, and Coco waiting to see what will happen!

Pogo was pretty upset to be out of the action, and really made a racket the entire time.  Brilly laid down and attempted invisibility, so Pogo wouldn't decide he was the problem.  (Brilly, the old gentleman of the pack, got to come out, stick his nose into everything once, and ended up on the couch, much to Pogo's evident dismay.)  I was worried that we'd set Coco back with her having to be so close to Pogo's very agitated and noisy frustration, but when it was all over, she came out wagging and ready to mix it up.

Pogo takes a break, while Coco keeps watch

Next time we have a gathering here, I think I may allow her access to her crate, and to the party, and see what she chooses.  We're lucky to have her at this time of year, since we almost never have visitors.

Our son-in-law (the Big Boy's dad) has been in and out working on some projects.  Coco hears the door, and troops out with the other dogs to see what's new.  When she sees it's not familiar H, rather than scuttle away to safety, she just retreats down the hall to the Rug of Safety, where she watches with wary interest.

Coco watches the guys get up close and personal
with the turkeys.

So: the man-fear is already eroding, in the house.  How about outside?  I told you how upset she was about the man approaching us on the street the other day.  We took her back to Hovander, the big park/restored farm in Ferndale.  She did really well, though she was a little nervous about a small dog barking from the back of a pick-up truck in the parking lot.  Once we were moving, she was just avid, pulling like a freight train, to see up around the next curve, to watch a distant dog-person pair in the distance, and basically just experience it all.  Passing people and their dogs was exciting and interesting.

We worked a lot on leash manners.  ;)

We decided to take her to the Railroad Trail in town yesterday as the next stage.  It averages about 6' wide, and is very popular, running through a tree-lined greenbelt in Bellingham.  It would be a big step, and I was really curious to see how she would do, ready to turn around and leave if it was too traumatic a next stage.

High up on a pedestrian bridge: no worries (well, Brilly
isn't very happy, I'm afraid.)

We parked, in a shopping center parking lane, and she was pretty agitated.  We made it on to the trail alright, and then she was fine.  More than fine.  Even bicyclists, joggers, and dogs coming at her or up behind her only made her more interested to see what was next.  She was only wary a couple times, and it didn't seem to be about men.  She even walked up on the big pedestrian overpass over a fairly busy road, with no apparent strain or worry.  (Brilly was not so happy - we're working on his new fear of this bridge.)  She even surged towards people, men and women alike coming towards us.  We had to do a lot of stopping, backing, circling, waiting, praising, and stepping one step at a time to work on her leash manners.  H was getting tired of waiting for us, and we were all ready for the walk to be over when we hit the end of the trail.

Then it got interesting again.  Coming up the path off the main trail, shielded by trees, until bam!  Open to the parking lot.  Then she became agitated again, attempting to drag me to the car, ANY parked car!  It took us quite awhile, because I really didn't want to let the end of the walk un-do all the good training we'd been doing.  So: step, stop, wait, step, turn, circle right, circle left, zig zag, step, stop ... None of which seemed to deter her from her intense desire to make it to the car and GET IN!!  She was in no state to take any treats (must up the ante, and get a variety of more special treats in my pouch!), and praise is still pretty much just another noise we make, as far as she's concerned: I had no way to reward her except forward motion, which she could only take a step at a time before lunging with all her might.

Might be a good time to mention the harness again.  I'm using a Wiggles Wags and Whiskers martingale harness on her (yes, I'm friends with the maker, but I still wouldn't use it if it didn't help!), which has a loop over the shoulder blades attaching to the leash that will tighten if she pulls.  There's also a ring on the front of the chest, allowing two points of attachment, for almost rein-like control.  I value the front ring even more than the shoulder ring, since it changes her direction, towards me, if she pulls, whereas pulling in harness is something dogs take to pretty quickly, so just the back ring doesn't discourage or re-direct very effectively.  Together, they give a good sense of security (very hard to wiggle out or dance out of control), which keeps her from being able to indulge in a full-blown panic, and me from having to deal with one.

Okay, so we did make it to the car, and everyone collapsed in post-walk nap mode.  H had to get something from Lowe's, which gave us another opportunity to work on leaving her in the car with no humans.  Lowe's on the Sunday before Christmas was hoppin'.  H went in, and I walked away from the car, but staying in sight.  She got up to watch, but didn't seem too agitated, so I walked further, behind vehicles, peeking through windows, and saw that she was looking around, but not too upset.  I walked casually back, leaned against the car, and wandered off again.  I did this repeatedly, staying out of sight longer each time, for about 15 minutes.  By that time, she was sitting down, watching things go on around her, but not really fussed.  H and I came back to the car together, and she was happy to see us, settling down in seconds.

This is big, too.  Annie had told us she wouldn't tolerate being alone in the car even for seconds before having an accident.  And eating it.  :P  Even in a busy parking lot, she experienced that it wasn't a life or death situation.  Gold star for the day!

 H has been working on building Coco's tolerance of and even enjoyment in men.  Here are a series of pics of him giving her a good petting session.  These have lots of big points in them: She's in the couch zone, which took her a week and a half to enter.  She's face to face with H, with evident enjoyment, even letting him handle her feet, which she can be twitchy about if not in full-blown play mode.  Okay, she's not overly thrilled with the foot-holding, but she's tolerating it well, in exchange for getting petted.  (Like the giraffe-print pants?)  He's also started giving her a meal or two.  That should go a long way with her, chow hound that she is!

This morning we've had a couple firsts already.  These kinds of things would be nothing for any other dog, but with Coco, it's like watching a baby discover each new ability, each new joy, each new bit of mischief.  She drank from the water bucket in the dog yard.  Yes, that seems like a pretty small achievement, but it means her discomfort about being loose outside is low enough that she's willing to think of something besides getting back to the house after going potty.  Yesterday, she even dared to romp with Pogo, taking one spin around the sun shelter and play-bowing, before heading back to the gate.  But one of the funniest, to me, is that she made her first attempt at counter-surfing this morning.

We've been putting cut up carrots or apples on the corner of the counter, by a babygate, so treats are handy for training: not within easy reach.  If finally occurred to her she might be able to help herself, if she just jumped her front paws up on the gate ... Which is when I heard her, and turned around to see her reaching that long snoot out for a carrot bit.  I corrected her with a little more volume than usual, in my surprise, and she jumped down and back ... but kept her poise.  It seemed my "yelling" at her was just evidence of a failed experiment, not something to be too upset about.  I was so proud of her, I just had to laugh at  us both!

Okay, that's plenty for now!  Have a great day!