Week 4, Test 3, Approach By Stranger, (Take 2)

Tonight was proof I need to get Piper out around strangers and strange situations more often to desensitize her. I decided to take her with me inside my AA meeting and put her in quiet time next to my chair.  It was the wrong decision, since I lead the meeting and sit up front next to the coffee and door.  Way too much erratic traffic.  

Still, she settled in immediately and it was fine until more and more people kept arriving and walking right in front of her.  One must have smelled scary, because she actually tried to attack his foot in passing.  (She was muzzled and did no harm, except scare the guy.)  Then two small kids arrived.  As a precaution I moved her to the right side of my chair between me and another person, giving her more shelter.  

She kept growling at the little kids and I kept correcting her.  She even barked once softly and received a stern correction.  Once the meeting was well under way and I was able to slip away, I took her back out to the car.  It was obviously too much stimulation and not sufficiently safe for her or the strangers.

After the meeting I walked her and drilled her for about 10 minutes before starting the test.  It still took us NINE tries to get one take that would hopefully pass.  It was hilariously ridiculous. First, my dog was still a bit wound up and then my stranger kept ad libbing and ignoring my very specific instructions.  The first few times she did it, Piper would get excited and break.  Eventually, Piper stayed put but just barely.  That's why you'll see I had to tighten the collar to help overcome my over zealous dog and stranger.

Welcome to the real world of real world situations.  We definitely need more practice.  The good news was while I got a bit frustrated with my stranger, my dog never made me anxious one bit.  I'm slowly learning to read her tells and not over react to them.  Even when she fear reacted to that one guy, she went after his shoe.  There wasn't anything angry or scary about it.  Now, if she hadn't been muzzled and he'd kicked her or run, I suspect it could have easily escalated.  But that's my job to not let things escalate. :)