Post by Dave on Oct 30, 2011 21:13:33 GMT -5
Sedona continues to amaze me.
Suziriot posted that thread about Dharma and her difficulties adapting, and that is pretty much what I'm going through with Sedona. But her recent achievements, where she socialized on the hike, walked outside under her own power, and tonight on our walk around the neighborhood, has given me renewed hope for her.
As we walked the streets this evening, we passed three groups of mischief-nighters, each of them young adolescents with their associated noises, laughs, screeching, yelling. Normally this would send Sedona creeping into her crate at home, and send her panicking and running for the gate if we were in the yard. But tonight she ignored them, or gave them just a glance while we powerwalked past the groups. She also spent a lot of the walk looking around, and sniffing different things in the road.
Now, most of you would say "my dog does that all the time." Sedona is basically agoraphobic. The thought of leaving the house makes her shake and shiver, and only recently would she leave the crate on her own knowing where she was headed. I've been able to get her to the sofa where I can scoop her up instead of physically pulling her out of her crate. My daily goal is to empower her, get her to make decisions on her own. Every day it's a struggle, but each day she's making progress. Mary spent some time with us a few weeks ago going over some BAT exercises and explaining the principle behind it, and that's helping.
All of this is new to me. I had no idea that I would see a dog so traumatized at what we generally take for granted, much less live with one. And it makes it easy for me to understand what Suzi is going through, and how amazing she is for what she's given Dharma. I can't wait to see what surprise Sedona has next for me.
Suziriot posted that thread about Dharma and her difficulties adapting, and that is pretty much what I'm going through with Sedona. But her recent achievements, where she socialized on the hike, walked outside under her own power, and tonight on our walk around the neighborhood, has given me renewed hope for her.
As we walked the streets this evening, we passed three groups of mischief-nighters, each of them young adolescents with their associated noises, laughs, screeching, yelling. Normally this would send Sedona creeping into her crate at home, and send her panicking and running for the gate if we were in the yard. But tonight she ignored them, or gave them just a glance while we powerwalked past the groups. She also spent a lot of the walk looking around, and sniffing different things in the road.
Now, most of you would say "my dog does that all the time." Sedona is basically agoraphobic. The thought of leaving the house makes her shake and shiver, and only recently would she leave the crate on her own knowing where she was headed. I've been able to get her to the sofa where I can scoop her up instead of physically pulling her out of her crate. My daily goal is to empower her, get her to make decisions on her own. Every day it's a struggle, but each day she's making progress. Mary spent some time with us a few weeks ago going over some BAT exercises and explaining the principle behind it, and that's helping.
All of this is new to me. I had no idea that I would see a dog so traumatized at what we generally take for granted, much less live with one. And it makes it easy for me to understand what Suzi is going through, and how amazing she is for what she's given Dharma. I can't wait to see what surprise Sedona has next for me.
;D
I look forward to learning much here