I'll apologize in advance for this photo-less blog. Promise to make up for it tomorrow!
Today, multiple people asked me if I was ready to go back to Wisconsin in a week. My answer was no. While I miss everyone and Tucker, this has been the most incredible journey of my life and I'm not ready to leave yet. If everyone and Tucker could just be here, my life would be set.
I went to the Fairway this morning to work on my intern project. I'm not sure if I've told you what it is, but basically it's an enrichment schedule. It has everything from puzzle toy feeding, to kong day, to exposure to new scents, visual triggers, and sounds. The caregivers are pretty excited about it and so am I. The animals need enrichment. It makes them use their brains and exposes them to things they may come across later.
Amongst doing other chores and visiting with the dogs, I worked with my girl Raisin. I decided we'd start our session with a walk. Well, that wasn't completely what happened. Raisin is in a run with 3 other very active dogs who will pretty much follow you around non-stop if you're in the run with them. I blocked them inside since it was near impossible to get the 3 outside and Raisin inside. My attempts to leash her up failed. The outside portion of the run is much too big, and we haven't had much socialization together outside. Kathy helped me get Raisin inside and the others outside. She was too fearful for me to put on her collar so I sat in my usual place next to her bed. She came over and then left again. And then came over and left again. As time went on (which was probably only less than 10 minutes), her tail would wag more and more and she would sit next to me for longer and longer. She sat next to me for what I think was the longest continuous duration yet, pawed at me a bit, and then stood in front of me (which never happens!) as if to say "ok, I'm ready for my collar!" IT WAS AWESOME. I put her collar and leash on and off we went. I could tell she was still skeptical of me by the way she glanced at me every so often while walking, but it's still and improvement. We got back from the walk and sat in her kennel for a bit. She lied down a few feet away as I read a book to her. She let me pet her all the way down her back and on her stomach today. I realize the progress doesn't seem immense, but that's not how it goes. I am willing to wait as long as I need to so that she is comfortable and we don't end up going backwards.
I wish I could say my afternoon went as well. We had training with out project pets. As soon as Sharkey and I got into Tara's Run, I knew it was going to be a rough session. There were tennis balls behind a fenced in area near where Sharkey and I were working. He was fixating on them, so I asked Tamra to move them out of eyesight. That didn't seem to matter for Sharkey as he spent pretty much the entire hour session trying to find them. It was a little frustrating, but I realize that something as tempting as tennis balls to Sharkey is not something he can easily overlook. Next time, I'm going to aim to be at the back of Tara's Run again as that's where he was the most calm.
I brought Sharkey back and helped out with some chores at Old Friends. They didn't have any volunteers this afternoon so they had quite a bit of work that needed to be done. Huck came for a Sharkey toy session around 4 and I observed. Sharkey has made tremendous progress with dropping toys! He started to drop them much quicker than last week. I'm glad that he's improving. This will eventually help his fixation issues :)
After, Cherie asked if Huck could work with Benny, a small chihuahua who has recently taken on a fear of men. Huck and I sat down in Benny's run and Huck worked his magic. At first, Benny was hiding behind me and barking continuously at Huck. By the end of the session, Benny was in Huck's lap. I will definitely be using the things I learned from Huck when I work with other cautious dogs.
Tomorrow the interns have a slot canyon tour. It's going to be a whole lot of fun!
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