Becca goes to the Park

Thankfully the promised rain hadn't come by time time I met Kerry and Becca at a park.

The plan for Becca today was to get her used to being away from Honey and doing a little experimenting with the Confidence Course. We started slowly with cones and (2) 3' pieces of ladder.

I traveled light thinking the sky would open up at any moment.

After we got the cones & ladders set I walked Becca through the cones using the Balance Leash Plus and she did really well with those. The ladder was a different story and she would much prefer to walk around it. There were people doing a photo shoot not far from us and this concerned her. Becca walked more freely with them to her back than she did walking toward them.

We decided to see if she responded better with a wrap....that I left in my trunk. As I ran off to get the wrap Becca was anxious that I had left her newly formed pack.

Becca did well wearing her wrap and did not protest. We did several touches trying to relax her and headed to the course again with Kerry leading her. Again she did well with the cones but had reservations about the ladders. With tuna fudge strategically placed she would do a step or two.

I decided to try to guide her with the TTouch wand so that resulted with another run to the car leaving the pack. Again Becca was concerned but Kerry was able to get her to go through the ladder using treats~ Yeah Becca.

A couple rounds through the course with the wand showed me that this wasn't the answer I'd hoped it to be. At one point she did start to follow it into the ladders but caught herself and did a fancy side step to avoid it.

Another session of touches and Becca completely relaxed. I did ear work, lying leopards on the body and on her legs. At one point she even laid down.

We took her through the course again and then called it a day. There had been a lot of stress for her and she didn't freeze up and even relaxed for some of it.

Kerry said she slept for 90 minutes straight when she got home.

Our next visit will be where we can set up a full confidence course and find different parts she can do more comfortably and start building up those successes and her confidence at the same time.

United She Stands

Honey and Becca

Have you ever seen a sweeter pair of sisters? Though they look similar they couldn't be more different. Honey is a very confident and outgoing girl and Becca is more timid and unsure. When Becca is with Honey she is very comfortable and functions quite well. If you remove her from her sister she struggles a bit.

Becca will be 8 years old in March and came to live with Kerry when she was only 5 months old. Adopted from a local shelter her exact background isn't certain but it is believed that she ran free as a feral dog with her momma those first 5 months.

Kerry has worked very hard with Becca. There was a time she was so frightened she had to be carried outside to go potty. She is afraid to be in the car and to this day will lay on the floor board with her head under the seat as far as it will go.

This is how frightened Becca used to be in the car,
she is stuck under the break.

Becca is so bonded with Honey that Kerry has concerns what will happen to her if the time comes that they no longer have Honey in their lives.

Yesterday I had my first session with Becca. We meet once before at a TTouch one-day workshop I hosted. Kerry and Becca met me outside the house and we reacquainted. Inside, we visited with both Becca and Honey.

In order to progress with Becca we put Honey in another room. Because Becca was unsure of the wrap I progressed slowly. First draping the wrap across her body and then a loop here or there until she actually wore the wrap. I did some slow touches on her and then invited her to go outside on a walk.

Using a Balance Leash Plus I led her outside and we took her normal and comfortable path through the neighborhood. Becca was stretching, she was stretching her comfort zone. Not only was she away from Honey but I was walking her rather than Kerry. I asked her to stop and go along our walk and she did fantastic. During the stops we did touches and had a treat or two.

Kerry decided to stretch Becca a tad more and dropped behind on the walk to see what would happen. Becca did really well. We walked on quite a bit, stopping and starting, before she discovered Kerry was pretty far behind. When she did notice she was not visibly upset. Becca kept turning and looking to make sure Kerry was there but was not overly concerned and still willing to walk with me.

Many times when a dog is overly stressed they will have an "Anxiety Poo" but that never happened with Becca. We finished up our walk and headed back in the house for lovin' TTouches and reunited Becca and Honey! That was enough for one day.

Our next step is to find somewhere we can set up the Confidence Course and let it work its magic with Becca.