Who knew?

Tabitha does this grunt/whine noise when we are approaching a destination that is familiar and liked. At times it's been compared to the sound a groaning lion would make. At first it was funny, then went on to be really intrusive and annoying. It wasn't until she started lunging back and forth from window to window while making the loud and disturbing sounds that I snapped out of it and decided it was out of control. We've gotten it to the point of just annoying, so we're going to keep working on it until it's hopefully just her trembling and breathing heavy or something.

Usually when we get close to agility class Tab acts like she's not in the car. Her eyes glaze over, she stares vacantly out the window at nothing and doesn't respond to me calling her (or any other noise for that matter) until it's time to get out of the car.

Well wasn't there a big old switch last night? As we were coming up to the driveway, I thought I heard her make a noise and just passed it off as stress panting. Then as we are pulling into the driveway she actually lets out one of her unsettling groans. No shit, when I look back in surprise aren't I met with the look of a dog who is pumped! to be there. Eyes focused, body tight and excited. No more are the days of anxiety. It's so exciting.

I don't want to make it sound like class was a whip due to this sudden switch because I'd be lying. We still mangled some of the moves entirely but the teacher was so incredibly pleased with how focused and happy Tabitha is. I'm going with the fact that it's due to switching over to toy training. She loves toys. I also think it's helping that other people are receiving her with happiness. The teacher now makes happy noises at her when she shows up and goes so far as to run over and say hello at times. She tells her how great she's done when she gets the equipment right. The other students are even starting to loosen up and smile at her and say good girl when she looks at them. Now that I think of it, I bet that was a lot of her nervousness and can you blame her? Imagine going into a room once a week with someone you know to learn something, just to have the other people ignore you or look at you uncomfortably. I was all laughs and positive but that had to have been unnerving. That would shake me the fuck up and I don't often get affected by that type of stuff. Hmm. I'm going to keep that in mind. Thanks for helping me work that one out.

One sure thing is how routine I am and it's not helping Tab at all. Bummer. Once I do something a certain way and get the correct response, it's hard for me to shake it up which is weird because in most other training I can easily shake it up. It's like the positive reinforcement of getting it down makes my brain say "the end!". Agility can't be the only area where I do this and that freaks me out a little. I like that I'm seeing this about myself so I can work on it. Routine is so boring.