Maya and I met with a trainer today. I've been working without one, for various reasons including bad experiences and a real need to figure some things out on my own. We're ready, and by a series of incredibly fortunate strokes, we found a great person to work with.
The assessment took place in one of the Santa Fe dog parks, where they have individual runs (that are several thousand square feet large) for dogs who, for whatever reason, don't want to mingle. We chose an outside location because it's less stressful for Maya, and significantly more like her normal environment than an enclosed office.
It also happened to be freezing. And snowing. Maya and I got there early so she could run around for a while, and she was enormously cheerful about the chance for sniffing and chasing her favorite ball. I was enormously grateful for my giant down jacket, without which I'm sure I would have frozen.
The trainer showed up after a little while, but stayed on her side of the fence. Maya noticed as soon as she got out of her car. Ears pricked, face uncertain, body starting to tense, even though we were still about 80-100 feet away. I did a little circling with her, and a little "look at that," but kept walking. When we were about 50 feet away from the trainer, Maya triggered (bark bark bark!).
We turned parallel, and walked along the fence so I could say hi. Maya was jumpy, tense, and reactive, but not genuinely freaking out. We ended up finding a comfortable distance of around 30 feet, with me free to chat with either the trainer or Maya. I rewarded Maya for soft gazes, calm behaviors, or focus directed to me. I had a pocket full of hot dog pieces, so I saw results quickly!
This is the nicest part. Maya calmed right down. As long as the trainer stood still, she was totally focused on me. Well, not totally, because she noticed every arm gesture or change in voice, and barked at some of it. But she offered me calm behavior after calm behavior, including a relaxed down. It was the nicest experience.
I treated appropriate behaviors, ignored those I didn't like, and it was actually a pretty good training session. Maya is triggered by movement, especially movement away or parallel movement, and proximity. As long as these things stay around her comfort level, though, she is a delight. I love working with her.
The rest of the session was just me and the trainer talking (Maya practiced being calm in the car, which she seems to have accomplished remarkably well). The talking was fun too, and reassuring on several levels, but the nicest thing was just watching Maya offer cheerful, smiling, soft-eyed behaviors to me, over and over, because she knows that's the best way to feel good. So, so satisfying.
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