Happiness is a Happy Pup!

It's been about 6 weeks since I posted about Surf's early experiences and the issues we have been dealing with.   Since then, she has done really well with the exception of dogs barking in crates in her agility class.  The format of the class changed at the beginning of the new session.  No longer were all the dogs out on the floor working at the same time. Now they are crated while waiting their turn to go on the floor to do the exercise.  And guess what that means? WAY more barking and whining from the crating area.  I found that she was able to hold it together for about half the class, but then was going over threshold.  So I have had to get creative, and take lots of mental breaks, but this past week in class she was just super.

A few weeks ago, we went to visit a new farm where Surf will be staying for some herding training while we go out of town.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Surf has very different expectations of dogs in a herding environment vs. an agility environment.  Right before she went into to work some goats, she had to walk by a bunch of dogs making some noise in crates (all wanting their turn on the stock!). She didn't even look their way.  The arousal level of dogs who are working stock is VERY different from the arousal level of dogs working in agility.  And Surf very clearly knows that.  She's a smart cookie.

We also went to an indoor agility trial last weekend, with lots of dogs crated in two good sized rooms, and I was fully prepared to have Surf need some extra support in the environment.  To my surprise, she had absolutely no issues.  The dogs barking in crates did not worry her.  She was super confident, happy to take treats and tug, and started dragging me back in the building when I got her out of the car!  She also made a fun new friend---a BC pup about three months younger. The instant Surf and Vanquish saw each other, it was game on!  They played for a very long time, it was just adorable! Surf also met a few other dogs, said hi to some people and just had a positive experience.  Yay!!!! Have I mentioned that I am still in awe of her resilience?

This past weekend we met up with a few other dog friends. First we went to Bella's house and had a play date there.  Bella is a black lab, and Surf loves her--which makes me happy that Surf isn't a breed snob.  :-)  Then we had an outing with puppy border collie Charlie.  First we hit up Tractor Supply where Surf taught Charlie how to climb on all the things!  And they had a play session the hard store floor, rolling around playing bitey face.  As we were leaving, a little Jack Russell went crazy barking and lunging at Surf and Charlie, all from the comfort of his seat in the shopping cart.  Surf barely even looked his way!  Then we went over to a local park to work on desensitizing the pups to screaming kids, who were in the pool.  A huge success all around!  They saw people riding bikes, kids running with big tubes and lots of traffic.

Right now, I am feeling super optimistic that Surf is going to be just fine. She may be the definition of resilience!  This week, she is heading to sheep camp while we go on vacation.  This is the first time I will be away from her since she was born!  I know she will be in the best hands, and will LOVE getting to work the woolies (or goats) a few times a day.  She may not want to come home!  I am hoping the experience will boost her confidence even more.

I am in no rush to do anything with Surf, this whole journey is about her timeline and keeping all of her experiences going forward positive ones.  In order to compete successfully in agility, she needs to be totally relaxed in her environment.  Some trainers would say to get her to focus on me and ignore the environment.  And for some dogs, that might be the right choice.  But for Surf, I know that it's not.  Surf needs to check out her environment, assess any potential dangers and feel comfortable before she can fully connect with me.  So I will allow her to do perimeter sweeps and whatever she needs to do before asking for her focus.  I think it's only fair, after all she's been through.  Surf has lots of drive, is very clever and has a nice desire to please.   It will all come together but until then, we'll just keep having fun!