Social Butterfly

Those are certainly two words that I never thought that I would use to describe Azza. But there's no other way to put it: tonight in class, she was a wiggly, tail-wagging, googly-eye-making, treat-begging social butterfly.

It was amazing.

After teaching all those basic obedience and agility classes myself, I observed this phenomenon quite a few times. Somewhere around week four or five, a shy or anxious dog will blossom, sometimes explode is the only way to put it, and start to display the social skills and bravado of a seasoned entertainer (I link to that video because NPH is utterly, jaw-dropping amazing and everyone in the world needs to watch that spectacle half a dozen times at least). Not only is this blossoming a sign that the owner is doing their homework, but it shows the power of positive training. It is also a testament to the fact that most pet dogs want nothing more than a little structure and attention from their people.

Of course, Azza's situation is rather more complex than a little structure and attention will resolve but the idea is the same. Still, I was quite surprised to see her reach this emotional state. It was so much more than I expected for her out of this class.

She is infatuated with the small dogs, and tonight's favorite was the sandy colored terrier mix. She had no time at all for the half a dozen BCs in the room. She also decided that every single person in the room was her bestest bestie ever and that she would try to beg treats from them all. The instructors gave her treats and pet her but we only allowed the other handlers to give her treats, no touching. Just in case. I completely concurred with this given her previous behavior, and in fact, a couple of the other handlers were reluctant to touch her anyway (she was quite an mess the first two weeks and I can hardly blame them).

We did a classic recall with distraction exercise where we put our dogs on a long line and allowed them to approach one of the instructors who pet them and gave them treats as we backed up then recalled our dogs to us. Azza was totally into this game, realizing that she would get excellent treats and attention on both ends if she played along. Still, I was only able to recall her with difficulty.

Let me repeat that.

I was only able to recall Azza with difficulty from visiting with a human she's seen four times and previously only taken a single treat from, and that reluctantly and not directly from the human's hand. She was pressed up next to the instructor's side (Azza's default position for rewards is the heel position), thumping her tail on the ground and eagerly eating cheese and a beef stick like she hadn't been fed in weeks.

During the down exercise, Azza didn't just go into the down, she went into her spider dog position, chin on the floor, paws splayed awkwardly, patiently waiting for me to toss her another treat.

At one point, she flopped over onto her side and went into a little trance, just chilling on the floor.

In a room with FOUR unleashed dogs (BCs all) and four other dogs of uncertain affection towards her. We all stopped and stared.

I'm quite certain that Azza misses her BFF Nellie in Dhahran and is starting to figure out that other dogs and other people might be a similar source of attention and play and treats that Penny and Nellie and Moya and Boodle did.

We've learned a few new behaviors from the class but this social lesson is by far the most valuable for Azza.