Day 3 of Training: Mon, Feb 23, 2009

Our third lesson with Pete (and Cindy) were aimed at getting Tinsel (and us, her humans) to meet as many dogs and people as possible, so we can learn how to handle different situations differently. Even though Tinsel was already doing a lot better during our daily walks, she was still lunging out at certain dogs for no apparent reason, making us nervous and uncertain. Pete took us for a really long walk again, fine-tuning our techniques, teaching us different approaches, and most importantly, empowering us with the confidence that we could handle anything.

All the while, our dear Cindy would be walking and training Kimba nearby, keeping him close but not interfering with Tinsel's training.

After the long long walk, we were all tired and hungry and Pete said we will be going out for dinner with the dogs, and I almost fainted at the thought of it.

Going to dinner with them meant going to an outdoor restaurant in the nearby village, meaning, in order of significance:

1) stray dogs roaming around;

2) servers getting really up close to Tinsel

3) me being too nervous to eat anything

Honestly, I was totally freaked out by the idea of Tinsel meeting stray dogs, especially in their territory. Even though I was confident that Pete can handle any possible confrontation, I was still extremely nervous and dreadful.

Well, things turned out really smoothly in the end, just as Pete predicted. We did bump into one stray dog but the poor girl was really scared and ran away from us, while Tinsel wasn't even paying attention to her at all. There was a bit of growling and barking at the servers at first, but Tinsel learned to relax very quickly and was even learning to enjoy the place. In fact, she was so well-behaved that I could relax and enjoy my dinner as well!

That evening, I went to bed with a feeling of awe and disbelieve.

Wow.

-AM