Tuesday Training 19

I'm very proud of my girl for the way she handled herself last night (Monday).  A longtime and very good friend of mine, who we'll call B, stopped by for a visit, when - long story short - plans went awry and he was in the neighborhood and left with no where to go (that's what happens when all of our friends are home from college and plans don't get finalized 'til the last minute).

Due to Marge's issues with the front door (and with men), I kept her down stairs in the basement with Jessica while B entered the house.  Once he was seated in the kitchen, I called her up to me and fed her an entire slice of cheese, bit by bit.  I had told B to pay absolutely no attention to Marge, and, unlike so many of our house guests, he was willing to help.

Marge had no problem with his presence, for the most part.  She did give him one grumble when too much pressure was put on her, but I think it had a lot to do with the fact that she has come to expect treats from all people, including scary ones, so she was vocalizing her wish for a snack in addition to the fact that she was slightly nervous by the situation.

Otherwise, she walked around the room as usual, came up to bop B with her nose a few times, was comfortable enough to drink water, lay flat on her side, and try to get the remaining pieces of treat out of her Waggle toy as we chit-chatted for a couple of hours.  She acted pretty much the same as she normally does.  She gave lots of tail wags and even jumped up on him a couple of times.

I gave her lots of cookies and a lot of verbal praise.  For once, I can say that she experienced an almost purely positive meeting with a male visitor in my house.  Thanks, B, for all of your help - we don't get to do stuff like this very often, so I cannot express just how monumental this was for Marge!  A little help can go a long way.

Maybe, eventually, the "accepted persons list" will be expanded to fully include people like B.  I'd say this was a great start.  This gives me hope that Marge doesn't have to "hate" all men by default - in the right situations, she can really flourish and become friendly with people.  They just have to be able to ignore her and not pet her - which is the hard part, because you can't control people. It is for those reasons why Marge is now so completely enamored with my boyfriend, Louie.  In the beginning, he simply left her alone and let her approach on her own terms - now, they are inseparable!

At the end of our visit, I leashed Marge and walked B out, and we girls went on our first night walk in nearly a week.  It was short, but she enjoyed herself.  I was quite glad for that; given how well she did in the face of a stranger, she deserved a little fun.  Good girl!