So it has just turned 11pm and it is spookily quiet in the house. The birds are all snoozing and the pups are crashed out asleep either side of me on the sofa (which is lovely but I know once they start dreaming I am going to be feeling some kicks!) It has been an exciting day for Holly and you can tell as she literally ate her dinner, wandered to her bed and flopped down and went to sleep. Darkley joined in with the excitement and has worn himself out too which is a first!
Tomorrow marks two weeks since I picked my little Holly up. She had a friendly wag but was a nervous girl, every noise and movement made her jump. She couldn’t sleep because she was so on guard and on edge. This past weekend she has relaxed a bit more and sleeps all night at the end of my bed and is not jumping at every bump in the night. So I thought it was time to start her socialization.
So instead of our early morning walk I chose to make it more of a midday one as there would be more cars and people about. This also meant I got an extra hour in bed which I can’t say I was unhappy about. Now in my room is where the lizards are and you don’t really hear much from them. However Mojo loves to jump up at the sides of her vivarium and you can hear her claws scratching about like she was a cat or something. Holly finally worked out that the noise she could hear was a “weird moving creature” and could not take her eyes off Mojo. Holly has a strong chase drive, she stalks like a collie and chases like a greyhound- she is living up to her mixture of breeds! She controlled herself pretty well with Mojo but Mojo was being a cheeky little moo and running about at the glass on purpose. I think that she thinks she is more like a huge monitor lizard and not 16cm long dragon!
grrr look at that scary lizard!
After that experience we went on a little short walk. Oh she is like a steam train on the leash, exactly like Darkley was when I first got him. She was fine with cars going past and walking past people. She saw and heard children and did not seem bothered. She did however see a few pigeons and a cat she was more than happy to try to chase and just end up choking herself on the leash. So a few things to work on but nothing too bad!
Next we did some gardening in our front garden. Darkley usually “helps” me when I do this. Mostly he sticks his head out under the front gate and scares random people who walk by as they don’t see him down there! So we put Holly on the long line and let her wander about too. She did not seem bothered by the traffic or people in the street and was just excited to be there. She tried to help us by eating some of the pulled weeds and by sticking her nose in to rubbish bag to grab the pulled weeds to run off with! One of our neighbours came home and said hello over the fence and Darkley ran over and said hello and got his cuddles. Holly kind of watched for a few seconds and then bounded over and did the same! Her little tail was wagging and she looked so happy! My little nervous pup just bounced over to a stranger for cuddles and strokes, she didn’t even know what cuddles were a few weeks ago.
So with this in my mind I asked my agility trainer if Holly could come along with me and Darkley to practise tonight so she could do some socialising. She said that it was okay, which was so awesome of her to do. Everyone in my class at agility are really great with dogs and I thought that they would be the perfect people to help Holly realise that people aren’t too scary! Holly did me proud tonight, she was so behaved at class. She barked a bit when I went out of sight or a bit too far for her liking but other than that she sat about watching everything going on. She was happy to say hello to everyone and respected the other pups about. Maybe she was having a bit too much fun though as she did not want to go back on the leash at one point! Everyone knew I was adopting a nervous shy girl but what they saw was a different dog. I know it is not anything I have done; it is all Darkely’s work.
Darkley was a barking mess at agility as normal! He gets way too hyped up about it all but that is the collie in him I guess. He did so well once I worked out my handling issues but I do wish he would slow down now and then as I am shattered! I am very proud of my boy.
So it has been a busy day for Holly. I have learnt so much about her through it too, that she is great with people and dogs but pigeons better watch out! For two weeks I cannot believe how well she is doing. We are off to the rescue centre tomorrow for them to check her over and see how her incontinence is, so far everything seems okay with it.
man my dogs are awesome
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