Around week #3 Daisy become quite uncertain about novel things. Things that were not there yesterday are now quite terrifying. People putting pressure on her by looking at her or walking towards her also sent her for a loop. This was particularly apparent when I tried to walk her on trash day. I saw lots of sniffing, low body carriage and apprehension moving forward. It just so happened that trash day was a really nice day in December and worrying about the random things on the street and the people walking were too many things. We call this Trigger Stacking!
This is nothing to panic about. We just need to take a step back.
I took a break walking her in the neighborhood. We spent a few walks at the park where things are less likely to change, and we can get more space from the scary stuff to allow her to recover.
At home, I spent more time working on her sitting and waiting for information, and responding to her name. I introduced waiting to be released from her sit position and added a few recall games into her outside time to get her responding quickly and happily to her name. These are the tools I need in place to compete with the scary environment when she needs my input.
Overall Daisy is doing well. At the 10 week mark, she has met lots of dogs to play with so we are working on focusing while other dogs are around. People walking down the street signal that she should come to me and sit. She is still not ready to greet people without lots of feelings so while we can exist around new people, I discourage any interactions with them.
Its all still a work in progress while we look for her forever home. Stay tuned for more Daisy updates, and if you think your dog could benefit from a little guidance, reach out and schedule a phone consult with us! thefreckledpaw.com