I am very happy to report that we had another good night last night with only one wake-up call to go potty (and pounce on a few more moths). Today, we started to get into a fairly consistent routine. While there is a slight variation in the daily schedule, each day begins at the hotel with taking Pippy out for a walk and practicing manners in the hotel room. Each Peaceable Paws day begins at 9:00 am with a mix of lessons for the humans mixed in with two or three behavior modification sessions with the dogs and a break for lunch. The day ends between 5:30 and 6:00 pm with us heading back to the hotel or observing a class or two at Peaceable Paws.

Today went better than I had dared hoped! It helped that I went into today’s session with a plan on managing Pippy’s behavior during the people training sessions and a written protocol for the behavior modification portions. Those plans made a world of difference for both of us. I need to say a huge thank you to Pat Miller for all of her support and flexibility and to the rest of the class for helping us deal with an unexpected issue!

We went for our morning walk where Pippy did very well working on leash manners. We then went to our class. I left her tethered in the car while I set up a designated space for our use during the human lessons. I set up visual barriers behind the classroom entrance so that Pippy could not see the other dogs enter and exit the building. I also set up a long-line hooked to the wall that gave Pippy some freedom and allowed her to have an all but bark free morning. She did get a little jumpy a few times when another dog would bark or somebody would enter the room suddenly, but she remained relaxed enough to explore the area, eat tiny bits of food and play with her squeaky toys a few times. During this time, we also played some crate games.

Then it was time for implementing more of our behavior modification protocol. We did have to punt on our set-up, but Pippy was a trooper today. Not only did we change the other dog, but the other dog’s handler and the location where we worked. We started out at the distance where we left off the day before with no noticeable stress! We achieved a positive conditioned emotional response (CER) in only a few looks at the other dog. We were able to decrease the distance between the two dogs significantly in only twenty minutes. It was a lovely, cool day so I then opened up the car and left Pippy crated there for the rest of the morning. She did beautifully as long as we kept at least a part of her crate covered.

We made an excursion around the barn during lunch, practiced some sits, and chased a few bugs. She remained under threshold the entire time and did not even return the barking of another, much larger dog. We also practiced trading high value items for treats when she managed to find some pieces of horse hoof behind the barn.

Our second twenty minute session had us moving locations again while keeping the same dog and handler. Even though there were dogs barking and other animal noises in the background, Pippy did a fabulous job. Again, we started at the distance we left off during the last session. She had one startle event when somebody entered the barn during our session and she regained her composure in only a few minutes. We were again able to decrease the distance between the two dogs during our session. The final distance change of the day made a noticeable alteration in Pippy’s behavior and she became more worried about the other dog. That is also when the startle event occurred. We were able to end on a high note when she was able to regain her CER at this new distance.

Pippy was a terrific teacher today. The lessons include that not all terriers chew shoes and get into things they should not, that one should never underestimate the resiliency of a terrier, that not all reactivity is created equal, and that very rude little girls can learn manners in a big hurry when somebody spends the time to teach desired behavior. Here are a few pictures from this evening.