Leash-less and Lovin' it!
Our dog, Bella hasn't ever really done well in public places as well as car rides, and walks. Since we don't have a fence for her to roam around in, we have to take her out ourselves which can be a very difficult and frustrating task since she can be so skittish. On a walk she gets very nervous (barks a lot, whines, doesn't listen) especially around other dogs, but we have been very patient as we understand why she is this way, and we have been working with her on this for quite some time now. We try to take her on drives as often as we can. I've attempted to take her on hikes with me but, I find that it's a bit to much for her so I just to stick to neighborhood walks. In the last year, she has gotten so much better. We've been setting small goals for her and she has been meeting them. One of our/my goals was to take her to a dog park, which can be a very risky thing for a dog like her.
Early Wednesday morning, I took Bella to her first trip to the dog park. It was only the two of us for about 20 minutes until another (very kind) lady showed up with her two (also very kind) dogs. I had Bella in the small dog area and the other two we're on the large - two separate enclosures. They met through the fence and talked to each other in their doggy ways. After 10 minutes of sniffing each other they all sort of went back to doing their own thing. Bella played for about an hour before she completely wore herself out. I was/am beyond proud of her and her progress. We took a special trip to get ice cream for her before getting back to the house, haha. I'm going to try to take her once a week so that she can continue to get more comfortable around other dogs/animals and also get a good lil' exercise. CANNOT wait until we get that fence!
I managed to grab a few clips of her while there. Sorry in advance for the shaky cam.