22/12/2024
We had such a good little moment on our hike today!
Since the age of 5 months, Zepp has really struggled with novel sights and sounds, especially unfamiliar people, people with atypical gates, people carrying things, etc. When she would encounter such things, she would pancake to the ground and try to run away, often without regard for her safety or surroundings. She would go into pure flight mode and the only thing we could do to make her feel better is get her space. For this reason, we don’t walk in our neighborhood.
It took us a while to get Zepp on a good medication regimen with the help of our wonderful veterinary behaviorist, but we finally found things that help manage her anxiety. For the past couple months, we’ve been starting to take her to parks and hiking locations. This allows us to give her the space she needs to observe stimuli without getting pushed over threshold. We’ve also been diligently working on counter-conditioning so that she can learn better associations with her triggers.
Today, Zepp did something amazing! We were out training in a big open field near a lake and an elderly man carrying a cane walked our way along the path. Zepp immediately came over, sat, looked at the man and looked at me as if to say, “I know this game!” She didn’t run away and showed that she understood that strangers bring good things for her. She even took a couple steps toward the man to investigate on her own!
For those of you who don’t know, behavior modification can be a slow going process. These milestones mean the world to me. We still have a long way to go, but today was a win! Very proud of this little girl!
