House of Joy

Agility, much to my dismay, was cancelled AGAIN tonight. We have now gone two weeks without a class. In one way, I guess it's not really a bad thing, given the issues we've been up against. But it really would have felt nice to get back on to the field..

So, to fill the void in our schedule, I decided a trip to my grandmother's house was in order. Marge lover her, and she loves Marge, so it is always a possible choice for an outing. We called ahead and set up a visit with the Cavalier x Bichon puppies across the street, who Marge adores to bits.

They played for about an hour, racing around the yard like crazy dogs. Ralphie and Marge especially like doing this.

Usually Gidget keeps to the sidelines, but she got into it too at some points.

Marge usually play bows zillions of times while there. I think she feels safe playing with them, since they're small and don't jump on her. They prefer to chase.

Here they are practicing recall. Ralphie kept trying to inch up, Gidget tried her hardest to look uninterested, and Marge was so excited by the thought of treats that she sat there attentively waiting to be called.

It was a fun visit. Marge heard some noises that freaked her out, but thanks in part to something - maybe the 3 mg of melatonin I wound up giving her before we went - she didn't go into panic mode.

After a while we went back to my grandma's, where Marge and I waited outside for a bit because my uncle, who does not like dogs, had stopped by. There were more scary noises, but thanks to our new FEAST game, where I slide kibble in all different directions across the floor, she got through it.

She did get to briefly meet my uncle, and seemed to like him too. She was nervous of him, but her whole body wagged with not a hackle raised or growl uttered. +1!

The rest of the time, she dozed contentedly on the rug as we sat and spoke with one another. She was so comfortable that she didn't even want to leave. My grandmother's neighborhood is very quiet, so nothing was bothersome to her.


I was glad to have a day with Marge where she got a decent amount of exercise and exposure to her favorite things without being too afraid. Hopefully we'll have more repeats of these kinds of things in the near future.