Lilly's last day's in Singapore and Daisy's progress:
A little over a week has gone by since Daisy came to me for fostering - time, I felt, to step up her socialisation with the help of some willing and dog knowledgeable friends, Carol and her son Paul. A great way to introduce dogs to new people (or to other dogs) is through walking together, so we rendezvous'd at East Coast Park yesterday morning - an area where Daisy already feels relaxed - and off we set along the empty footpaths. Four people, four dogs. It took only a couple of moments for Daisy and Lilly to fall into stride beside Paul and 20 minutes later, by the time we headed down to the beach, Paul and Daisy were best mates!
Fully clothed (no bathers!), Paul and I waded into the sea, quickly followed by Daisy (stark naked) who didn't need too much encouragement. She's a great swimmer, happily circling me and Paul in fluid doggy paddle, not at all concerned by the gentle waves as Lilly sometimes is.
With only a couple of days before Lilly heads to USA, I decided to carry Lilly in deep, just to see how she'd get on. With a calmness so typical of Lilly, she doggy paddled back to shore, wondering what all the clapping was about. It was so wonderful watching her that I took her in again!
Not all dogs are destined to feel comfortable around children, and Daisy is possibly one of them. She's scared of sudden movements and loud noises and when in fearful mode, she's less happy to be handled, taking a warning nip if she feels threatened. Already I've witnessed a tremendous improvement though and with a little time and patience, and as her good experiences with people and her trust in them grows, she may overcome this. After all, she's still very young and has only been in a safe home environment for a few days. My strategy will be to try and avoid placing her in any situation that
elicits a fearful nip.
Not all dogs are destined to feel comfortable around children, and Daisy is possibly one of them. She's scared of sudden movements and loud noises and when in fearful mode, she's less happy to be handled, taking a warning nip if she feels threatened. Already I've witnessed a tremendous improvement though and with a little time and patience, and as her good experiences with people and her trust in them grows, she may overcome this. After all, she's still very young and has only been in a safe home environment for a few days. My strategy will be to try and avoid placing her in any situation thatelicits a fearful nip.
Next morning, Daisy broke new ground, boldly walking out of my front gate, across 3 roads, past moving cars and a barking dog, and onto the pedestrian pathway through my local park. On leash of course, and with 3 K9 pals. A miracle! Last time I tried this, we had to turn back within a few minutes, and I kicked myself for putting her through so much terror so early. She even managed to walk past a great big digger machine with just a slight quickening of her pace. I've noticed that rather than crouching and trying to pull away from scary moving objects (such as walkers and bikers), Daisy now stops and stares at them, not pulling away, before turning and walking on. I'm reading that as a good sign!
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