Shyla's Growing Confidence

A picture of intensity...

When I first met Shyla, she wasn't passionate or intense about anything. She has changed profoundly in the past 1.5 years. She loves her mountain life and plays with incredible intensity. She's truly a "Rocky Mountain Dog", as she adores clambering up on boulders and standing tall to survey her world.

Shyla's confidence with others outside our family is growing. During our hike this morning, we saw our friend and his dog. His dog likes to posture, showing that she's the boss with other dogs. Confident dogs, like R, seem to barely notice this dog's posturing. However, Shyla has always been scared by it.

This morning, the two met. You can see the piloerection of Shyla's fur just above her tail. You can also see her ears pinned back and how she's almost leaning backward away from the other dog. Clearly, Shyla was not the boss in this meeting.

This was actually a good meeting for the two of them, compared to many of their encounters over the past year. There was no groveling by Shyla, and the other dog moved away without any growls or other overt bossy behaviors. Their recent meetings have been greatly improved, like this one. It makes me happy to see it.

In this encounter, the tough part was that the other dog moved so that she was between me and Shyla after they'd sniffed each other. Shyla was scared to come past the other dog to rejoin me.

After a stalemate for a short time, the other human, who has won Shyla's affection and trust over the past year, escorted her over to me. Actually, that is rather remarkable - Shyla trusted another human to help her go past the dog who she is afraid of! If you realize how terrified Shyla was of most people a year ago, that's an amazing event.

It's fascinating to watch Shyla continue to change. I wonder what she'll be like in another year.

I dream that she'll continue to learn how to cope with "scary" situations. I doubt that her fears will ever go away - but learning to cope with them is a huge accomplishment.