Session #2 with Sydney

This past week I've given a lot of thought to the lessons learned from my first session with Sydney. Cynde reviewed my photos gave me some great "Mentorly" advise. One of her many pearls of wisdom I held on to was when she told me not to try to force Sydney to do anything she doesn't want to do.

Why is it that one of the things I love the most about TTouch is the hardest to remember when I get into a jam? I've given that some thought too and the only thing I can think of is that every other training modality I know of is all about getting the dog to do what you tell them to do WHEN you tell them to do it. So, I kept this in mind today.

Terri and I decided to meet earlier to avoid the heat and I got there 1/2 hour earlier than they did so I could set up the confidence course and have everything ready when my guests of honor showed up.



Today was a beautiful foggy day and I counted on coolness to help what I considered to be a major issue with our session last week.

I think things went a lot better this week. I saw the leash looser than it was last time.

When Sydney decided she wasn't going to go I used those opportunities to do touches on her.



Terri shared some things with me that she noticed that I may not since I don't know Sydney very well.

• During one pass through the labyrinth Terri commented that Sydney was really paying attention to me and thinking. This is not something she normally does.
  
  
  

• She also commented that Sydney was standing still for me longer than she ever has! It is very typical behavior for Sydney to lay down if she isn't moving. We had a lot of standing up time.
  
  
  

I have experience more of Sydney stopping, laying down and refusing to budge than actually pulling on the lead. That got me thinking.......WHY does she lay down and not go? She is a big girl and I wonder if her legs are stressed? Tired? Could she have growing pains since she has gone from a tiny puppy to a very big girl in just a year? I did some Python Lifts on her and also did them on Terri's arms so she could see the benefit and also how to do them.

We also put 1/4 wrap on her and I'll bring more wraps next time so we can hook them together to do either a 1/2 or full wrap. Maybe bringing awareness to the back with help with that.

Today I realized we need to overcome the laying down and not budging before we get too concerned with the ground work.

We had one unexpected training opportunity today. Sydney LOVES people! If there is someone to greet she is just the gal to do it. A toddler and his mom came to the park and Sydney started to lunge and bark happily to go see the baby. I suggested that rather than repeatedly tell Sydney to stay could I try something. I asked her to sit (something she is very good at) and then in a happy voice asked her to come with me. We walked her to the opposite side of the park and situated her with her back toward the child. I explained how to use diversionary tactics with her and to remove her from the situation that is causing her stress, good or bad stress. It worked perfectly.

It was obvious that Sydney was tired and I didn't want to try to make her do any more so we gave kisses and called it a day.

Driving home I thought of our session and what went right (much more than last week) and what we'll try different next week. One thing I'll try next week is scrunchies on her feet.