Mother Can You Lend A Hand?

My foster mom has been training dogs for many, many years, and I've lived with her long enough now to see she has lots of tricks up her sleeve. I guess that's why the people at MN Sheltie Rescue decided it would be good for me to stay with her - so she can try different things with me and see if any of them will help me behave better when I'm around dogs I don't know. 

So far she's tried scolding me, but that had no effect (duh). Then she tried that annoying Gentle Leader head collar, but I flipped and flopped around like a fish out of water and it just made me mad! The Evil Squirt Bottle helps me tone things down quite a bit, so she does use that "tool" from time to time. But my foster mom has decided that we make the most progress when she's calm and patient with me and waits for me to offer some version of acceptable behavior that she can reward. Ya gotta love that!

Since I'm no dummy (Okay, I'm being modest. My foster mom says I'm the Stephen Hawking of Shelties.) and love, love, love to earn treats, I respond well to the rewards and I start paying attention (though sometimes not right away, I admit). Then, pretty soon, I start sitting and lying down and doing anything I can think of to get a cookie. It's like magic! And if the situation is waaaaaay too arousing and causes my adrenaline to spike off the charts, my foster mom does to me what she teaches all her students at Cloud Nine to do when they need to help their puppies and dogs settle down: she gently places her hands on my shoulders and softly tells me to relax. And guess what? I DO! It might take me a few moments, but her calmness helps me regain my gentlemanly composure so that I actually can quit barking and lunging and acting like a crazed maniac around those strange dogs! It feels so good not to be so out of control! Sigh. 

My foster mom knows that this strategy is not a quick fix, and it certainly won't work when she's not around to help me make better decisions about my behavior, but if it does a good enough job so that I can do agility in front of an audience of other dogs, that's good enough for both of us! 

(PS: I'm getting really good about behaving well around dogs I have sniffed from head to toe before. A lot of the time I even can ignore them and keep my focus on my agility lessons! Yippee!)

Here I am, all calm and cuddly on my foster mom’s lap while she works at her computer. 

Hey, she’s not typing anything bad about me, is she?