One Week Update of Honey

We've had Honey for one week now and WOW what a difference. From the time we took her from Dave -when I had to pick her up and bring her into the car, a big shaking mess- to today, doing zoomies and greeting people without any hesitation she's already making big steps.

Honey's leash training was at a big fat 0 when we got her (no worries, we can deal with that), but to make matters worse she spooked at any sound (a frog, a car, the wind blowing a different direction, seemingly nothing) and buckled down into fear mode. The first couple of days our usual half hour route (which isn't all that busy) turned into an hour and a half, and I can tell you Beckett wasn't particularly happy about the pace. The walk consisted of three steps, sound, avoidance/fear, about a minute or two of pulling gently on the leash and getting Honey to move -on her own- forward. Rinse and repeat.

But yesterday we took Honey and May into Petcetera as we needed new Nylabones ASAP! Honey followed May's lead in greeting people, she took a couple of treats and only went into 'OMG, something is going to kill me' mode once when she accidently nicked a shopping basket as she went through the till.

She can now walk very well on a leash when there aren't many distractions around. She is fine with having other dogs and people on the walk but busy roads are still hard, so we've started with nature hikes and are progressing to crescents, little-traffic roads, side-streets, etc. By next weekend we hope to try out some busy parking lots.

Her confidence is building daily and she sure is a terrier now. She's high-energy, fun and go-go-go. She jumps into bed in the morning, licks our faces and heads to the door. She wags her tail for the leash to go on and to go out and about. She whines at the door if she needs to go pee. She is either at level 10 crazy or zonked out sleeping. We're working on staying calm, but she is still a puppy.

Yesterday when people came over to visit she wasn't shy at all about wanting attention and is starting to be the first to go over to say "HI, I LOVE YOU!".

Maybe its Beckett, or the more focused attention, or the movement of one place to another, but for whatever reason shy dogs don't stay shy here for very long!