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Chapter Four This day turn out to be a good one, it the first day of Novice II Classes and all went real good. The new instructor is a very understanding Lady. She sounds like she knows dogs and after hearing Dixie’s past wants to help all she can and feels she can. There only been one other instructor at this school I’ve meet who has been this way, but not the last two classes. At her last Exam the Judge said she was surprised I hadn’t had her put down by now. Dixie didn’t stand still for her to exam this day, but she did not show aggregation like she did in the passed classes. The whole class was a pleasant experience and we are looking forward to continuing on with new hope. In our second week of class the new instructor was able to touch Dixie under the chin, Dixie was nervous but try to be clam. What a improvement. This week end we went to a new farm and watch the sheep dogs work. Dixie did do better with the people and dog around her, not nearly as good as she needs to, but better. This time there was a lot of Border Collies and good ones. It’s fun to watch the good one work the sheep. Week 5 is come up in a couple of days and the instructor says it time to take off the muzzle Dixie has been wearing. The instructor feels confident that she will be fine. At week 4 Dixie would follow her around the ring and take treats from her with out any sign of aggregation. She also took treats from one of the other lady student and from the instructor in the next ring over who seams to be having a contest with my instructor as to who can get Dixie to be the friendliest with first. All I want is for Dixie to love the world and all the people and dog in it, and now I being to feel she can get there in time. Next week is last week of classes for Novice II and Dixie is doing very good. The last two week in row she has stood for Exam, Hallelujah, she not good at it but try her best. She now will take treat from at lest 4 or 5 of the other ladies in the class. She show much much less aggression to others people and dogs. I have also noticed that in the last 10 weeks she has changed in other way. She has never been aggressive towards me. She has all way like to be around me and play or work out, but she was never the cuddling type.
The last 2 week she now will come over and jump up on the sofa with me and lay for a while to get me to scratch her ears or tummy one or twice a day. When we go to bed at night she will jump up on the bed to get a scratching, them jump down and go to sleep under the bed on my side which has become her place. She started out in a box beside the bed and I guess that’s what fells safe to her. I hope she can pass the finale exam in class next week and we can move onward and upwards to more and bigger things, how ever in this class she hasn’t been doing as good with her basic sits, downs and recalls like before. On recall she come two third of the way then turn and run to the instructor, I guess thinking she will get a treat. It’s the same with stand for exam, she wiggles around or go over to the instructor looking for a treat. I wish she would just do thing right, but what a better problem than her wanting to eat the instructors. If she doesn’t pass the class I won’t be too sad and going though it again with this instructor, because of the vast improvement of the last 10 weeks, might be just the thing she and I need. I am in a hurry to get to the end where ever that might be, but then quality takes time sometimes. If Dixie become a happy camper so well I. For the second time in a row I was not able to get Dixie signed up for her Herding Instinct Test, there just a long list, but maybe next time. I wasn’t looking forward to leaning to herd sheep this time of year. It about 7 degrees out side and snow on the ground and as you can guess all lessons are out side in a field. Spring dose sound better to me, although Dixie like the winter time. Dixie didn’t pass her exam, she was having to much fun running around and wanting treats from the judge and instructor, so in January it back to Novice II classes again. This well give us a month and a half off, but due to the weather we have not been practicing like we should. How ever we have had a change to see her with strangers (people she had not seen before) over Thanksgiving and she did real well, Barked a little too much when they first came in, but that was all and in minutes she was fine with them being there. Christmas like Thanksgiving gave her the opportunity to meet some new people and some that had been by on Thanksgiving. Again for her she did well, a little too much barking, but she remembered the one’s she had meet before. She did have one person she snap at once. It was a man, a boyfriend of my number two daughter she had not seen before. One time when he came in the front door alone from going out side to use his cell phone, she bark as he came in, she was laying on the floor chewing on a rawhide bone someone had given her and when he came in he turn and with out thinking about her walk straight toward her heading to the kitchen. She must have thought he was heading toward her and the bone. She jump up and with a growl grabbed his pant leg as he came close. We also had some new neighbors move in to the north and with them new problems to work on. They have two young boys about 5 or 6 years old and a dog, a Samoyed. So far Dixie is getting along ok with it, just rubbing nose though holes in the fence, this is much better than Dixie and the neighbors 3 dogs to the east which do battle with when ever they are out back. I glad there is a new Stock Aid fence on that side.
Anyway back to the young boys who have found out if they growl, make faces, and run back and forth they cane get Dixie going wild. This isn’t helping her with aggression with strangers, especially young kids. I have ask them not to do this and not to stick the hand though the chain link fence because she might bit them. I did this with their parents close enough to hear me. I hope this well end, Dixie has not really bitten strangers yet and I don’t want there to be a first time. She dose better with women than she dose with men or children. The time has gone by fast and the break from school is over, this week we start back to dog school. Even Though Dixie and I have not been practicing as much as we should with the cool weather but Dixie is still doing pretty good, remembering all the basic thing and has make some progress in her behavior problems. I been trying to lean to use a clicker with her and it been helping I think, I just don’t have it or treat with me all the time. The first two week of school is going well, this instructor just seams to know Dixie and me. Dixie did remember she was the treat lady and they got along great from day one. She has shown little aggression toward the other dogs in class. There one a lot like her (a Border Collie also) who jumps at her and she well jump back at it, but so far she has not been the one to start things. Dixie seams to be happier and a better pet now that we are back to practicing and going to class. She likes having a job I guess. You know when I think back over the last year and a half other than a few physical up and down in the first months of her life Dixie has had a good life. She healthy, there always been food and water, a warm or cool place to lay, a yard to play in, and a lot of people around to love her. It just must be me who wants more for her because of the aggression problem, I don’t want her to go though life in fear. For me I want to be able to take Her anywhere anytime with me meeting other in a friendly way. Today Dixie start her second week in her new classes at school, so now it two classes at once, Novice II and the new one, a course in Attention. It looks like it will be fun, it all about getting your dogs attention and keeping it on you. We got her a new collar and a short lead along with a new Treat bag. This is more money But hay, you can’t put a price on love. They say they think it will help with her aggression if she would be more attentive to me and not to the world around her. In about 8 more weeks well see if there is any improvement. Classes have been going well the past few weeks and now they are coming to an end. I can’t say all the aggression is gone, but I do think it better. This week when these classes end we will have to again have to decide what to do in the future. If all go will and we pass the Novice II class we can go on to one of three classes or I guess all three. They would be Beginners Rally, Beginners Open, and Beginners Agility. This week will let us know, tomorrow is the last day for Novice II and for Attention class.
Today is the last day of classes and test day. Dixie scored 152 out of 200 on her test but she lost all 30s point on you guess it “Stand for Exam” and with out it she did not pass again for the second time, So it back to what to do next. We were hopeful that we would be moving on to a more advanced class like Open Beginners. So what to do, what to do. I talk to the Open Beginners instructor, who was today also one of the judges, and she said Dixie did good and came so close that she fells if she went thought the class again she would be ready for start Open Classes. She is also the lady I have spoke about earlier in the ring next to us who has been trying to get Dixie to come and eat treats from her. She reminded me that some time it take a long time to over come Dixie’s type of problems and that I just needed to be patience it will come. She also show me some things I could be practicing with Dixie so she could have a head start in the Open Beginners class. So next month it back to Novice II class. I guess I should say Hallelujah she did get thought her other class on Attention.
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