Baby Steps

For as long as Mokey has known my brother, she's known his wheelchair. About a year ago he found out that both of his hips were dying and as a result he had two free vascularized fibular grafts (one for each hip). Just this week he received the all clear to begin walking again. The human family rejoiced while Mokey donned her worried face and submissive body language. It had never occurred to me that she had only ever seen him sitting and that his sudden uprising would be cause for worry in her mind. She made up with him quickly, but when he walks and leans over I can sometimes see the wrinkles in her forehead start. Of course it could partly be because he is walking a little differently from the rest of us until his muscles grow back. But I have to admit, it was kind of cute when she walked by his empty wheelchair, sniffed the seat and then looked around like "Where's the rest of this person?"

Yesterday Mokey also joined, what I am going to call, her "Dogs in Need of Personal Space" class - since it's a class designed for more fearful/reactive dogs. Mokey did quite well for her first day, partly I am sure because she's used to the building and took puppy classes in the same room & partly just because the trainers do an excellent job at managing us. This first class was probably more beneficial for my own peace of mind than Mokeys growth. It was kind of like AA for reactive dog owners. I think it's really easy to feel alone when you have a fearful dog. Like the entire world is made up of Golden Retrievers and their blissfully happy owners and then here you are with your cringing, barking mess. But class was kind of cathartic, a chance to see a larger world. A chance to see that there are people like you, in the same situation you're in, with sympathetic ears and the ability to understand that just because your dog is reactive doesn't mean it's a 'bad dog'. It was also kind of funny to hear how people have learned to deal with the unleashed, "my dog's friendly," canine-human duos of the world. While I'd love to have a happy, go-lucky, everything in the outside world is grand type of dog, I don't. I have Mokey, a very sweet & loving yet shy and fearful puppy & unfortunately I usually end up having to protect her from the 'my dog's friendly' callers of the world. Yesterday I learned a few more funny ways to dissuade even the most oblivious of individuals - like yelling out, "My dog's contagious" or "She bites children" and other such amusing phrases that while largely exaggerated do have the desired effect of gaining space . . . that last one would probably clear an entire block for you. ;)

Eventually I hope to help Mokey overcome her natural shyness - to become more at ease when meeting strangers and new dogs but until then it's all about managing her life so that she can feel safe while still growing. I'm sure I won't do a perfect job at it, but luckily dogs are pretty forgiving and at the very least I can meet up with a couple other like-minded owners and commiserate.

I'm going to try and keep a record of what training I do with her, so that I have a way of tracking our progress and what seems to help Mokey the most. Right now we're mainly working on looking at her triggers and then receiving a treat and putting other calming signals (like 'sniff') on cue.