We ventured out to the petco parking lot tonight. Our goal was to see if Rhiya could sit in the car, relatively relaxed, and maybe see a dog ... And not react.... We were testing out the distance that we needed to keep from her triggers, in order to keep her under her reaction threshold.
IT WAS A SUCCESS!!!!!!
Saw a guy walking a medium sized dog about 50 ft from our car. She noticed it, looked back at me and I said "good girl!!!!" And teated her!!! She did this a few more times with the same dog. And I repeated my Praise and treating. When she wasn't seeing the dog, and she was just looking around, we would practice the "watch me" command. She would be looking at something, and I would say "watch me" and she would look back to me, and I would say "good girl!" And treat her!
We only stayed about 15 minutes because it was her first exposure to her trigger of dogs since she's been on the fluoxetine... And I have always been told to always, ALWAYS, try to end on a positive note. So we left after 15 minutes and came home :-)
IM A PROUD MAMA!!!!
This will be our new nightly routine, and we'll maybe go twice on weekend days. We will slowly work up to us being outside of the vehicle and watching dogs from a distance. I know times won't always be this positive, but a good experience is still one to treasure! She's worth all of the effort to help her feel more relaxed in her short little life, and I really do have good feelings that were on the right track. We visit the vet for vaccines and a follow up on her behavior on October 8th. We will keep updating with results of our nightly petco parking lot visits.
No comments:
Post a Comment