I am becoming a graceful lady!

Hi, it's Cinnamon!

Do you think that the title of this post doesn't suit me? If you think so, you are wrong. I AM becoming a graceful lady. I will explain why I can say so.

Graceful Cinnamon

Firstly I don't bark as much as I used to. In Mum's previous post she told you that I barked at other dogs a lot. But, it was actually all her fault! She didn't give me any guidance when I was not sure how to respond to other dogs. So, I had to bark at them to release my stress. But now, when I see another dog coming, I look at Mum, then she always gives me some treat. I still have to give a glance back at the dog after getting a piece of treat, but Mum gives me more treat if I give my attention back to her. So, I often repeat looking at the dog, then Mum, then the dog, and then Mum .... until the dog has gone out of sight.

To tell you the truth, it took me a few of months to learn a good behaviour like that. At first Mum tried to make me heel every time we had to pass another dog. It seemed to work for a while. But, over time I became more and more stressy when I had to deal with the anxiety while heeling. So, she stopped making me heel and instead started to give me lots of treat. However, it doesn't mean that Mum's effort to make me heel was fruitless. Heeling exercise taught me to stay close to Mum when walking on the lead with her and made it easier for me to give attention to her.

I am also learning to stay quiet when I am left alone while my humans are not home. I used to keep barking until my humans came home (When Cookie was with me, I didn't bark, because I didn't feel lonely. But, staying alone at home without Cookie made me think that I might be alone forever). But now I can even have a nap in my crate!

Lastly, my sniffing has become much less than before. Yes, at the dancing summer camp that I went to two weeks ago, I kept sniffing, making my Mum very unhappy. But, I have learnt from that experience that, if I keep my head up, Mum is happier and she might give me treats more often. As I sniff less than before, my heeling has improved too.



See? I am becoming a graceful lady!