Shyla's Socialization Report

This morning, Shyla and I were out on the trails as the sun rose. When the sun first peeks over the eastern hills, it renders the world and Shyla a dusky red.

I have no doubt that Shyla has come to love our daily routine. One morning recently, I couldn't find Shyla when it was time start our sunrise bike ride. Finally, I heard a rustle from down in the darkness by the basement door, which is our exit route every morning. Shyla was sitting there, staring at the door, waiting for the moment when we could go out into the cold air. Yup, she loves our morning mountain bike ride!

I've written a lot recently about how much progress Shyla has made with her fears. Many of them are now almost invisible, as she delights in things that used to scare her, like meeting new people. But, as we all know, it's very hard to completely leave the past behind, and that's true for Shyla too.

She's met many new people in the past few weeks with great joy and excitement. But, every now and then, something about a certain person reawakens her fears. In the past week, it's happened twice. One nice gentleman with a white beard spooked Shyla when we met him on a trail (he did nothing to provoke it). Similarly, in town, a little girl with dark hair walking directly toward Shyla while staring at her caused Shyla to back away and cower.

Both of these incidents surprised me, because I'd started to think that no one scared Shyla anymore. However, the amazing thing is that Shyla desperately wants to meet people, even when she's scared of them. So, in the case of the nice bearded guy, he and I chatted while ignoring Shyla. Shyla gradually sneaked closer and closer to him, and finally belly-crawled the last few feet to meet him without any encouragement from me or the guy. I find it remarkable that Shyla has such conflicting drives inside of her - serious fear of certain people but an incredible drive to meet the people who scare her.

The mind of Shyla is not simple to understand...

I predict that, eventually, Shyla won't be afraid of any adults. I'm less certain about small children. I think I'll have to supervise those interactions extremely carefully for a long time to prevent Shyla's fears from festering.

In any case, the "Shyla Socialization Report" continues to be good. She has made stunning progress in the past couple of months, and I have no reason to believe that it won't continue. She meets 99% of people with nothing but happiness.

The journey continues, as always does throughout the lifetime of a dog. I'm thrilled with how far Shyla has come since those scary days when I first met her. She's exceeded my expectations in every way.