Arggggh.

I took Ria into town on Saturday afternoon. It was all going really well - except slight "moment" with a man playing a guitar! I carried her some of the way (including past the man - she still wasn't at all happy so I stood there until she'd relaxed - and then put her down once we got to a slightly less busy part. She was watching everybody going about their business, and we did a bit of focusing on me and walking nicely on a lead (this is great, but only for very short periods - and absolutely diabolical the rest of the time!). She was happy and relaxed, focusing well (for a 12 week old puppy!) and happy to say hello to people (she hasn't had that much experience of meeting people in unfamiliar environments from the ground).

Then as we were going back I wanted to take her to see the man again, as she'd reacted the previous time. I stopped some metres away - with her in my arms - and she was fine. So I put her down on the floor...erm, no thank you! Tail went between her legs, and she started pulling in the opposite direction making small cries. I have no idea what it was about it that upset her so much, but she really was not a happy girl.

And then it got worse. As I started walking back to go home, what should come along the road but a parade of motorbikes....literally hundreds, complete with police escort. All this was ok, except just as we reached the road some absolute PRAT decided to show off and start revving his engine over and over again - very loudly - complete with air horns. Well Ria just totally FREAKED. I have never seen a dog so scared, she totally lost it. Thankfully I had her in my arms at this point, but even then I could hardly hold her. She was trying to get away, screaming and crying. As soon as I had enough control of her I had to walk away, she was just in a blind panic. Even as I was walking away she was still screaming, and once she'd calmed down slightly I discovered she'd pooed on me....so she really was genuinely frightened. Though she does do drama queen well - once after she'd pooped she was swivelling round and crying - she had a bit stuck to her :-P Ok, fair enough....but the same reaction was provoked a few days later when she stood in the water bowl and got her bum wet!! *rolls eyes*

I could happily have throttled whoever thought it "cool" to show off like that. So I've been doing traffic exposure in my arms, and I've now got a sound CD (fireworks, gun shots & thunder/lightning) to see what she thinks of that. If she's ok I'm going to try and get hold of a CD with motorbike engines on. My biggest fear is that she'll tranpose the fear and be scared of things like doors banging, crates being collapsed..etc

The good news is she was ok with traffic before, so hopefully she'll recover. She's a little jumpy with other (non-motorbike) traffic now, but that seems to be getting better already so fingers crossed....


Then yesterday we had to be all dramatic again *sigh*

I'd asked a friend if she would bring her Golden Retriever (Freyja) to meet Ria, cos I know she's very good with puppies and smaller dogs, and I knew Ria needed as much as exposure as possible. Well, she arrived in rather excited style....and Ria ran across the room with her tail between her legs screaming :-P (not at the level of the motorbikes though!). She put herself in the corner and there she stayed!

The good news is by the time they went (after about two hours) she'd come out, she was happily moving around the room and she even had some nose to nose contact with Freyja :-) So with some work I hope she'll be ok....she hasn't had that much outside dog contact - only been allowed down on the floor to meet other dogs properly for just over a week - and we haven't encountered too many "suitable" dogs. She's met a couple of puppies (a 12 month old Bearded Collie and a 6 month old Poodle) on lead and she hasn't been extreme - nervy, but no crying or screaming and although she'd back off she'd then go forward, back off, go forward..etc.

I'm still really irritated that I missed ringcraft last week, because that would have done us both the world of good. However, she's going for the first time tonight! So that'll be interesting....first time being gone over by a stranger, and there'll be plenty of dogs for her to interact with.

She had a trip in the car to see Solei's chiropractor today (just for a visit - Solei's appointment!). As I suspected he's put his pelvis out badly again, but his chiro said it went back more easily and the muscles feel more supple, so at least we do seem to be making some progress. I just hope maybe we can go longer than two weeks without him damaging himself this time :-P Maybe even two months?!