optimism

Yesterday, I took Maya to a pizza restaurant, just to hang out.  We walked around the parking lot, practiced some basic skills, and watched people carrying pizza boxes.

It made me think.  "People carrying objects" was one of Maya's earliest and most obvious triggers.  A person with a box in their arms was a dangerous and terrifying threat, and Maya would bark and growl at them even from a considerable distance (up to several hundred feet).

Now, Maya is a much more sophisticated dog who knows exactly what's inside a pizza box.  She has also experienced people who give her delicious treats, and as she watched the delivery guys, she leaned toward them in a yearning fashion.  Eyes soft, mouth moist, tail quivering...she was not exactly begging, and not exactly expecting anything, but it was clear that she was entertaining a wistful sort of hope that someday, sometime, a complete stranger might give her a whole pizza of her own.

Turning Maya into an optimist may be one of my proudest achievements.