Redemption!

Yesterday was not a good day for little Nettle.  I'm sure we ALL have days like this, but she was NAUGHTY!!!  With a CAPITAL "N"!! Looking back, I could have/should have handled the situation differently, but alas, it's water under the bridge now!  UGH!

When we're outside, or not otherwise able to watch Net, she's in a large crate in the living room.  Trust me when I tell you, she is not toy poor.  Yesterday she had her nice assortment of chew toys!  Monday I did notice that her crate was closer to an outlet than I thought save, yes, there was a cord pulled in there, so I pulled her crate forward.  The cord, was to a really nice floor lamp that I like, and it had the 'warning' tag attached near the plug.  I think Bill must have thought that the crate was too close the entry to the kitchen, so he pushed it back.  Guess who spotted the tag?  Luckily, she pulled the tag, which pulled the plug out of the wall.  Of course, she then pulled the cord inside her crate, removed the tag, and the plug as well!  UGH!!  You know that 'small' part of you that wishes she would gotten zapped?  Yep, I felt that too.  Oh well, not really her fault I guess.  Strike ONE!

Last night was the Foundation class, so earlier I'd set up a few fun stations to work on.  Some wraps, tight turns out of tunnels, a teeter on a table, etc.  What a great opportunity to work Nettle for a few minutes.  I took her out to the building, we played some tug, I took her leash off and did some wraps to a tunnel.  AWESOME!!  Then a family of sparrows, apparently taking their first flying lesson, appeared not 10' from us.  Trust me, I can NOT compete with 5 sparrows, not to mention uncoordinated fledglings!  Nettle left me, SURPRISE, then pounced and got one!  Well, almost, it somehow wiggled away under her paw and off it went.  I only went down hill from there. 

I called her to come, she looked at me, looked up at the top of the building and decide....Nope!  So, I began to just calmly walk her down.  I walked, she walked...and walked and walked.  Now, how hard could it be to walk down a dog in a 60X80 building?  Let me point out that there was never a direct walking to her, all the contacts were set up too.  I vowed long ago that I would never do another 'Come to Jesus' on one of my dogs, but it crossed my mind while I was walking.  So, I thought about other things, like....'would it be possible to put a sparrow on the end of a tug toy'?  Okay, probably not a good idea.  Finally, after 20 minutes (maybe more), she stopped, and she let me take her collar.  I got her to tug again, let her go off again, called her a couple times to play and called it a day. 

Thinking back on it last night, I wish I would have just left.  There was no where she could have gone.  I could have just left her in there for 15-20 minutes and went back, so that's what I'll do if this ever happens again.  I could also have left her leash on, but I won't do that when working a contact piece, just too dangerous. 

Today she redeemed herself.  Of course, I wasn't in the building, I was out front.  We did some nice bouts of 'shadow handling', and even with Kruz as a distraction (he wanted the cookies too), she hung in there with me.  So, there is hope!  We'll just keep on celebrating the accomplishments, and try to figure out how to avoid the 'backsliding'.  I'll all work out in the end!!

Now, how am I suppose to read my book at night? 

JEFF!!!  Help!!!  VBG