Shyla's Growing Confidence

In the past, I've written here about Shyla's fears, and my efforts to help her live in our world more confidently. At one point last spring, I decided that I was going to continue my efforts but not be so focused on trying to "solve" all of them. That attitude has made a huge difference in our journey because I am less intense about Shyla's progress.

Recently, we met our trainer in town for the first time after month hiatus, our longest break since Shyla arrived a year ago. Before I edited my thoughts, I blurted out to my trainer: "I'm really happy with where Shyla is now. I love her. Some things still scare her but I honestly think that she's generally happy in her world now". That unplanned speech sums up my feelings pretty well.

Except for certain situations, Shyla navigates the world in a quiet, timid, but happy way. As long as I'm aware of my surroundings and potential scary situations, she rarely "spooks" (i.e., darts away from something, holds her body low, starts making jerky scared movements). A year ago, spooking was routine.

Even more surprising to me is that she has the courage to take the initiative to meet certain strangers. I never ask or require her to meet anyone so this has been entirely her idea. I haven't figured out all of her criteria for choosing who she wants to meet but, when she picks out someone, she seems to melt their heart in an instant.

Moreover, on the trails near our house, the one thing that she has found very scary in the past is hikers with dogs - to the point that she used to refuse to pass them on the trail. We'd have to go off into the woods to let them pass before we could continue on our way.

Just today, we met two hikers with five off-leash dogs. Shyla used to be terrified of this particular group, both the dogs and the people. Today, she met the dogs in her unassuming way, and then, to everyone's utter surprise, she spontaneously greeted each hiker, sitting nicely in front of them with her tail wagging in fast little arcs. I was thrilled! This was an epic step forward for her.

I suspect that Shyla will always be a sensitive girl who will inwardly be scared of certain things, like skateboards or big crowds. However, in recent months, she's learned to cope with some of these scary things in such a way that it's not obvious to my eye that she's scared. However, when we get home, diarrhea hits with a vengance (telling me that she was secretly scared).  This week, by tweaking her diet and keeping some distance between us and the scary stuff, we've kept her GI tract calm. I'm hoping that we can continue that streak!

I haven't shown you any new tricks that I've taught Shyla this summer because we've shifted our focus to agility training. Due to our training, Shyla is comfortable with many agility obstacles now, including the teeter-totter and the weave poles. I've used Susan Garret's shaping methods to teach her the obstacles, and they've worked beautifully. Shyla seems to love BANGING the teeter down really loudly (can you believe that?), which makes me laugh. And, she can navigate 10 weave poles in a row. She's not super fast yet but she's accurate. 

She's so intense about agility. She doesn't want to stop when I say it's the end of an agility training session. I never dreamed that I'd see such intense drive in the Shyla who arrived a year ago. When we have a sunny afternoon (a rarity these days), I plan to make an agility video for you so you can see her in action.

The last change in Shyla is the most subtle but she seems to have completely dropped her guard with the Runner and me. She's always been affectionate but in a frantic and needy kind of way. Since about two months ago, she has truly relaxed. Now, if she wants to snuggle, she just rests her head on my shoulder, lets out a big sigh of contentment, and falls asleep.

I cannot describe how wonderful that feels to me.