Being Shyla's Rock

I enjoy teaching Shyla tricks. A silly trick that we practice is her balancing a treat on her nose, tossing it in the air, and then catching it. Just today, she seemed to figure out how to toss it so that she could catch it.

I used to think that tricks were a silly waste of time. What is useful about being able to do this particular trick? Nothing really.

With Shyla, I have learned that practicing these seemingly meaningless tricks teach life lessons, like impulse control. Shyla has to resist trying to toss the treat that's on her nose too soon in order to earn the chance to toss it and eat it.

With Shyla, more than any other dog, I've also realized that playing games like this one helps build her trust in me. Because the trick itself is not important, I never get upset when she's not successful in doing it.

Rather, I praise her for trying so hard, and then let her try again. Partly by playing inconsequential games together, we've built a bond of trust.

I saw this trust help us immensely this past weekend. We went to a drop-in dog training class that we've been attending all winter. Usually, 2-6 dog/handler pairs attend. This time, there were 15 dog/handler pairs, including one person who used a motorized scooter for mobility (Shyla had never seen one before and unpredictable things with wheels tend to scare her). Moreover, the park where the class was held was insanely busy with all sorts of springtime recreation underway.

I immediately realized that this might be a tough class for my sensitive Shyla. I decided to focus only on keeping her calm and confident despite a chaotic scene that would have provoked Shyla to melt down just a year ago.

I was SO happy when she maintained her cool for the whole class. I took her for frequent breaks - short walks away from the group - to let her decompress.

Much to my utter happiness, Shyla chose the coping strategy of making very frequent eye contact with me. She'd swivel to check out the general chaos in the park, and then she'd bring her eyes back to mine. I felt as if I'd become her trustworthy rock, in the midst of the swirling insanity of humanity on a spring weekend.

I believe that all the little stuff that we've done together led Shyla to be able to cope with that scene. All the trick training, basic obedience training, socialization, and just being best friends culminated in her trusting me to help her through that class.

One good class doesn't mean that all of Shyla's fear issues are in the rear-view mirror. I'm sure that Shyla and I will have rough days dealing with her fears in the future. But, for that one afternoon, it felt so good that she trusted me to be her rock.