Elly Rocks the Balance Equipment

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I updated this blog.  A busy summer working the Shakespeare Festival, some family health issues and my arm in a cast…blogging somehow didn’t rise to the top priority!

I missed blogging about Elly’s one year ampuversary although I did manage a forum post.  She has been home for more than 10 months now and is really comfortable here.  She is still wary of strangers and dogs and pretty much anything that she hasn’t seen before.  On one of our morning walks we came across a donation bag sitting on the sidewalk- it took her 5 minutes to get the nerve to sniff it and finally walk past.  Since plastic bags seem to be one of her triggers we’ve been working extra hard on getting comfortable with them.  If we walk early enough in the morning there are usually several newspapers in driveways in plastic bags.  Elly will now ‘tag’ them (touch with her nose) on command!

We have also completed two more classes. One was called Canine Confidence which gave us some insight on shy and traumatized dogs. And tonight we completed our third Strength, Balance and Body Awareness class.  We’ve had the same trainer for all three of these and she is really impressed with Elly’s progress, especially with her confidence.  Vicki was nice enough to video our second run through the equipment course tonight.  I hang onto to Elly’s harness to keep her safe on the taller equipment and because I take her leash off, she freaks out when her leash drags across her back (so many issues!).

Here she is, although tired she still Rocked the Course!