New Expiriences.

Today Libby went out back on her lead, and had a walking tour of most of the back field. I mainly wanted to take her around the perimeter fencing to show her her boundries, but a few things made the tour a bit shorter then all that. We did have some positive outcomes, and she is out back now cropping grass and weeds- she seems to be enjoying being on that side of the fence instead of being bored in her pen.

I made a concious choice to stay about 40 feet from the fenceline where she has seen the big dogs next door, especially since it makes her a little nervous, and really puts her on guard, dogs or no dogs. Walking from there almost to the rear fence, and down it halfway went fine. Once she was out of Drifter's obvious range of influence, she was much calmer, and was willing to show me the complient posture, as shown on Vicki Abbott's website. At this point she calmly followed me, a lot like a puppy, but unless she stepped on ground that gave a little or had a different texture, she did not hesitate at all.

Halfway across the rear fence, I could hear the neighbor's dogs behind us (which we share that fence with) starting to bark and Libby and I, so we began a walk back up towards the front of the property. This time when passing over things Libby stopped at the first time, she just stepped right over them. All she needed was a quick glance to see what they were.

After some more walking, frequently stopepd for rubs and scratches, I brought her back up front close to where she is familiar with, and unclipped her lead. I kept rubbing her, and then walked away. She started to follow, then realized she wasn't on the lead, and stopped. When I got about 10 feet away, she just dropped her head and started eating. I'm hoping if we can have her out one day, and Drifter out the next, they will get plenty of "out time" and hopefully be a little less excitable when one or the other is handled.

We'll se ehow things go tonight when we go to bring her back in- I'm counting on her fearless love of buckets to work here!