And I don't mean physically. Dahlia is still at a lean 50ish or so
pounds. ;-) But emotionally and as far as confidence is concerned,
Dahlia has grown SO MUCH in the past year. I can't believe how much
agility class has really brought out more and more of her personality.
I've heard a lot of people say that it raises the confidence level of
dogs who need it raised, but I didn't really believe it 100% until I saw
it with my own eyes!
This past Wednesday we had an amazing day
in agility. Usually Dahlia is happy, but slow and very cautious. SO
very cautious. Before every jump in a sequence she'll pause, look to
me, and then go over. It's been a bit frustrating because she seems to
be SO AFRAID to do things on her own. Our instructor has suggested that
perhaps everything in her life was controlled when she was young and
that seems likely based on what we've seen from her. She still asks for
permission to get up on the furniture and this is not something we
taught her.
But this last class, she was very excited, very amped
up. She looked like a real agility dog. She took jumps fast and in
good form, had no problem jumping up on the dog walk (we're just
beginning contacts so the dog walk was only a foot and a half or so
above the ground) and turning around on it, even recovered quickly from
the bang of the teeter. She once actually took off and got the zoomies.
We also played a game of tug where she was leaping for the toy when
she lost her grip on it and one time even jumped up and bounced off me
with her front feet and grabbed the toy mid-air as I tossed it.
I
know most people wouldn't want that, but with Dahlia, it's HUGE. I
would write that in 50pt font if I could. REALLY HUGE. Dahlia is
wonderful, lovely, and so very sweet, but she's so reserved and polite.
To see her so excited about things that she broke out and ran around on
her own for a minute was amazing. To see her so into playing tug that
she leapt for the toy was beyond amazing.
I can't say what happened this last week to make her so excited, but I really hope that she will show that intensity again.
Thanks
for reading everyone. I just really wanted to share my joy with this
dog with everyone. I love her SO much. She's just the best.