I still haven’t made appreciable progress with Silas and the car. Yesterday I absolutely had to carry him somewhere with me, and it took about ten minutes to get him in. (Nine minutes of that was me getting him off the sofa. He actually got in the car just fine.) The whole thing was probably a huge setback; we’ll see. He will, clever dog, get happily in and out of the car as long as I don’t have any keys or a leash.
My goal for July is, basically, to get back into the swing of things. I was really crushed for a while about Silas’s sudden onset of car fear, but we’ve done some very good things in the meantime. I’m feeling optimistic.
July goals:
1) Keep up with the online class we’re in
2) Reel Silas’s diet back in a bit–there’s horrific road construction between our house and the raw food store, so Silas has been eating too much freeze-dried food. It’s not a huge deal, except it is so pricey. I need to clean out the freezer, then put on my big girl pants and go to the store.
3) As a sub-goal, really, to #2: make some homemade treats. I went through a phase where I made all the treats, which has gradually tapered down to me making none of the treats. I think there’s a happy medium in there somewhere.
4) Take Silas out for ice cream once a week. (He just gets a few bites; not an entire serving.) This is one of the few 100% happy things I can do with him in the car–the ice cream parlor has a weirdly shaped parking lot so he doesn’t have to people-watch, the drive is short, and he really loves ice cream.
What are your goals this month?
My Imperfect Dog 
These are great goals, and I like that you’ve broken them down into achievable elements. I always make the mistake of creating these sweeping goals, which always end up unaccomplished because they start to intimidate me. To keep it simple, in July, I’d like to get Eden not to jump on new people when they come to our house (or help her dial down her madness during introductions) and help Pyrrha and Guion bond at night, after meals, when the house is calm.
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I fully endorse the ice cream goal.
Ruby’s really regressed on our leash walks and I need to start taking her for focused solo walks where we do CC with people (there is no distance we can CC with dogs at this point).
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Poor Ruby. And poor you–it’s such a hard thing to manage.
The “no distance were we can CC” was the tipping point with me for putting Silas on his medication. He could see the glimmer of a car through the trees, and that was THE END. He was so scared that there was nothing I could do that would help.
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I absolutely love your blog. It’s so very, very comforting. (This is coming from someone whose dog had an insane reaction to a beach ball last week. Beach balls. Evil.)
1. Spend some time out on the porch. For some reason, Daisy cannot relax on our tiny apartment porch. She’s always looking for her stressors.
2. Work on her front and rear cross, as well as her “follow”, and leading with my shoulder. For such an anxious dog, Daisy really does well at agility. Climbing tall things, running through tunnels, she goes for the obstacles with gusto. I need to put the work in to keep her focused on me though, instead of just “I like these thing. I’m going over here, mom.” Stubborn witch.
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We’ve had to work pretty hard to get Silas able to sit outside even for a few minutes. Always on patrol. Our starting point was literally “I am going to sit on this bench; you do whatever.”
If Silas and I were doing dog sports, it would have to be good old competition obedience. He loves training, but he’s not physically brave enough for agility. A trial would be way too much for him, though.
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We had to start there too. It’s such a hard place to be. I cried in public twice a week. I wish I was exaggerating. Agility works for us because there’s no time to get distracted and scared. Obedience is harder since I am apparently not allowed to leave her side.
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Those are great goals – like Abby said, the manageable chunks are so important! I can’t bring myself to set goals for July because I know we won’t achieve anything. “Get through the move” is my only goal. I don’t know how we’re going to manage a hotel stay with Lucas and Cooper… (I mean, and Emmett, Molly, and Newt, but I’m not even slightly worried about them), plus all the stops for bathroom breaks along the way. Heaven help us. I desperately need to revisit walks with L and C when we get to Indiana. They have both regressed because we haven’t been working. I’m also signing Cooper up for a reactive dog class that starts July 31. But, mainly, just get through the move, hopefully without any major meltdowns.
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I have yet to make it through a move without a major meltdown, and all our moves were pre-Silas. Good luck with that one!
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My goal for this month is to get through the month without either of us getting heat stroke. đŸ™‚
I like your going out for ice-cream trips – that sounds really fun and I’d love to do that with Blueberry once it cools down and waiting in the car for ice cream isn’t so hot. Even with the a/c on – it’s just brutal this time of year.
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Not getting a heat stroke is a great goal. Also, not getting sunburned.
We have to go after dark. My husband waits with Silas and runs the AC if he needs to. After dark we do okay; during the daytime the AC can barely keep up against the sun, and it’s cooler here than were you are by 10 degrees or so.
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