Yesterday was a very hot day; so we did our morning trip early and our afternoon trip inside. For our morning trip, we walked around some streets that have angled intersections and islands in the middle of the street. Kathie handled them remarkably well. My dislike for them did not improve, and I’m glad that I don’t need to cross them on a regular basis. I know people who do it successfully, and I’m sure that I would learn if necessarily. For now, I bask in relegating this to the category of “need to know.”
In the afternoon, we walked around the grocery store to see how Kathie would do with all the food distractions There is a device that I can put on her, called a gentle leader, that allows me to have better control of her head in situations where she is likely to snatch food or be extremely curious about other people or things in the environment instead of doing her work. It looke like a muzzle but has a fing under the chin for a leash to be attached. With the leash attached, I can feel what her head is doing and give her s elight reminder, shich is much lighter than a correction, of the fact that I want her attention.
She did beautifully in the store, and I never put the gentle leader on her. It always stays in my purse in case of need; but I am highly impressed with her first trial in a store.
We spent some time in the lounge yesterday, where I had Kathie practice lying still while other activities were going on, including people playing with their dogs. She is very action-oriented and loves to be the center of attention; and she pops up at every sound or hint of fun. There are many times when I will want her to lie quietly while something fun or animated is happening in front of us; so this was good practice. She is getting much better but has a way to go still.
I also learned that Kathie will bond quickly with anyone who plays with her. I allowed another student to hug her for a few minutes. IIt only took that amount of time for her to begin to seek that person out instead of doing the things I asked her to do. In the past, I have been able to allow people to pet my dogs if they met certain criteria (e.g. sit and look at me). I may have to be muhc more strict with Kathie about who can pet her and for how long.
Kathie is beginning to grant me the privilege of grooming her tail. It is truly a gorgeous tail, and as I work down through the deep parts of those feathers it is truly an amazing thing to touch and wonder at. I do mean privilege when I talk about grooming her tail… It is not a comfortable process for her–the tail has great long hair and poofs into an amazing puffy thing. The hair gets easily matted during the day, and it seems painful to have the mats worked out.
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