This is
going to be a long one! We had a lot of great
socialization this weekend along with great progress.
Friday April 6th
Today was
the day Jazmyn was going to meet Paisley, my sister’s lab mix. We’ve been putting the meeting off since we
brought Jazmyn home, but now was the “right” time for Jazmyn to meet her and
learn that dog’s are not out to get her.
They’re almost the same in height & length, but Paisley has almost
20 pounds (and 4 months of age) on Jazmyn.
Jazmyn is reactive on leash, but not as bad, if at all, off leash so we
knew the meeting HAD to take place off leash for it to be smooth &
uneventful.
We had rules
& boundaries that we asked our family to follow as we knew of Jazmyn’s
reactivity and wanted it to be positive.
While they don’t fully understand, they did listen and it showed in the
end result.
Paul and I
took Jazmyn to an enclosed field and were throwing Frisbees, kicking soccer
balls, etc, basically doing everything would could to keep Jazmyn engaged with
us. My sister, her fiancé and our
brother brought Paisley after we arrived and kept her on leash until they were
half way across the field. Jazmyn was
completely focused on us, and didn’t even notice them walking. Paisley, being her super social self, ran up
and said hi to Jazmyn and immediately took off running (as usual). Jazmyn didn’t have the chance to bark &
react, only to engage in her favourite game of all, CHASE! They ran, and ran, and ran! Paisley runs so fast that Jazmyn can’t really
catch her, so it was the best game for them to engage in. After running, they did a fairly nice
greeting (a big step for Jazmyn as she seems to not know how to do this).
We had a few
little yelps and a tiny scuffle, as Jazmyn was “herding” Paisley’s tail and
Paisley told her boldly that it wasn’t acceptable. Jazmyn also rudely barked & air snapped at
Paisley and that didn’t impress Paisley.
Jazmyn seemed to really learn and they played well for the rest of the
hour and a bit. When we were leaving, we
were able to walk them side by side on leash with no problem whatsoever.
Jazmyn and
Paisley, while both still young, compliment each other well and I think they
can both help each other with their “issues”.
Jazmyn is hesitant around other dogs and unsure of how to greet, but
Paisley is a social butterfly with low to no reactivity. She’ll be a huge confident booster to Jazmyn
and will help teach her that dogs can just play without being a threat. Paisley has some guarding issues, mainly with
sticks & toys. Jazmyn, when with
dogs or people, doesn’t really care about the toy, so when the two of them were
running after a ball, Paisley was going for the ball, but Jazmyn was just in it
for the chase. Jaz would let Paisley get
the ball with no problems, and just follow her back to us. Paisley, by the end, was learning that Jazmyn
isn’t going to even try to take her toy away and hopefully, in time, she’ll
become much more trusting.
Jazmyn is
also 50/50 when it comes to reactivity in the car. On the way to the field, she was barking at
the occasional walker/jogger on the street, and barked at the dogs. After their play session, we had a very well
behaved pup in the car. Absolutely no
barking and pretty much fell asleep. A
strong & firm “Leave It” seems to work to stop her from barking at people
we pass while driving.
Jazmyn came
home and CRASHED for a few hours after the intense play session, while we got
ready to head out for Family Dinner #1.
I took her for a walk on my own before we had to leave and it was a
giant success. Usually Jazmyn walks
better with both of us, but this time, she was focused on me and in a very
happy state. I put in my head phones and
set out with my treat bag & clicker.
She was a dream on the walk and hands down the best walk we’ve had
alone. She ignored people that she’d
usually bark at, we encountered an off leash golden retriever with its
teenagers (Jaz barked once, but only after it barked at her first, I called her
off and we kept going very easily), she ignored 2 kids throwing a ball, we
walked directly beside a family on their driveway with no reaction, ignored a
man with a broom about 10 feet away which is normally a reaction and she kept
her leash loose for most of the walk
HUGE
MILESTONE OF THE DAY:
Jazmyn and
Paisley were off retrieving a ball, when a father & daughter came into the
field to throw a ball around on the baseball diamond. Paisley decided she’d like to go say hi, and
naturally Jazmyn was going to follow her.
Paul let out a loud “JAZMYN COME!” and Jaz stopped dead in her tracks,
whipped her head to look at us, and came BOLTING towards us at top speed. This was a HUGE accomplishment, as we’ve been
working very hard on her recall. She
must have come to us from the length of 1.5 baseball diamonds. SUCCESS!!!!
I was a very happy “mom” heading to dinner. A hugely successful day in my books
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