I say that we're still a work in progress mainly because of her leash walking aggression. This little 5-6 pound pup thinks the world must submit to her hollering and screaming, just because she says so. I've reduced myself to using an emptied-out contact lens solution bottle as a water squirt bottle on our walks when she starts bubbling up (you remember, the whole "Buh... buh... BAAAAAA!" ordeal). It's perfect for aiming a skinny stream of water right at her, and it definitely grabs her attention when she starts getting out ahead of me or tugging on the leash.
As another approach to taking these serious aggression issues head-on, Carlton and I recently decided that introducing her to groups of dogs might be a positive experience, as well as a great behavior recovery tool. When I was shopping around for pupsitting options for while we're on our cruise vacation with the families, I took a tour of a nearby doggy day camp playground business near Vespa's groomers. Her fantastic groomer Naiomi recommended the place for days that we might have lots of company over (ha! yeah, right), or to get her a bit more exercise, or to let her play with other pup friends while we're at work all day long. Camp Bow Wow requires updated shots (a bad Monday experience for Vespa which turned into a pitiful Tuesday experience for her and me). They also offer a free first day, which they call her "interview day" because they introduce her first to one dog... if they get along okay, they bring in another dog with a different temperament... if that works out alright, she's good to go into the pup club with the rest of the group.
Well, as it turned out, Vespa finally healed from a couple painful and sickening vaccines by Thursday morning when we woke up, and I decided to take her in this morning for her official Interview Day. She and Sadie Sweetheart (yes, they caller her Sadie Sweetheart and I absolutely loved it!), a poodle/shih-tzu/maltese mix got along like the best of girlfriends would. Then Jake, a Chihuahua/mut mix, was introduced. Uh-uh, Momma! Vespa did NOT like the fact that Jake ran into the room and jumped on her face and pounced on her from the left, knocking her down. But once Jake's excitement subsided and Vespa could warm up to him on her terms (slowly and with great caution), things went smoothly. The rest of her stay (she was there from about 8:15 until 2:30) went very well, and we could even check in on her from our home computer via their conveniently-placed web cam in their "Small Dog Indoor" view. I took a couple still views so you could see her "rollin' and patrollin' " activities!
There were actually up to 12-15 small-medium sized dogs in this group, but when I sat to take these still frames, many of them were out for their hour-long lunch breaks. She looks like she might be a little lonely, but I assure you, there was plenty of pup romping and trotting all morning long! And, yes, from what I could tell, she was the itty-bittiest of them all and she held her own quite well with no aggressive behavior whatsoever! Also, when I took these four frames within about a minute of each other, their pupervisors were either in the outdoor area (where the bright light is coming from in the very foreground) or bringing/taking a dog to/from a kennel for lunchtime. They are 100% supervised all day long, which is a total relief in case something does come up.Here are Vespa's notes about her first day at Camp Bow Wow from the owner herself!
Vespa came in the door, immediately drank about 10 gallons of water, ate a few bites of food, and hasn't lifted her head off the sofa cushion since. This was definitely a great day of playful exercise and fun interaction!
