When Angus and Skippy arrived I was immediately aware of two things: First, Angus was already my best friend, and second, I may not be able, at any point in the next hour or two, to get Skippy to get anywhere near the seamless backdrop, let alone to look at me. At this point he had no interest in treats I was offering, even if they were set on the ground in front of him.
So, I took a deep breath… smiled a lot, and proceeded to give Angus all kinds of rubs, scratches and oohy-gooey girly talk, which of course, he ate right up. I also made special effort to ignore Skippy completely as he sniffed a bit around his mom’s feet. All of his body language (super-tucked tail, cowering posture, ears back) said “stay away from me” so I did.
Angus ( clearly a lab mix of some kind) ate up all the attention he could get and immediately started hamming it up for me. He is an excellent sitter, and despite being at least 10 years old, is very lively and spry with a GREAT smile.
Slowly, I had Skippy’s mom wander onto the backdrop and Skippy predictably followed, staying within inches of her feet. I kept shooting Angus, slowly trying to incorporate Skippy into the shots with as little coercion as possible. Eventually, Skippy would eat treats I tossed near his feet and I discovered he was pretty attentive to the word “cookie”. Meanwhile, Angus kept right near my face or the hand with treats.
Gradually, Skippy braved further and further distances from his mom and even ate treats directly from my hand. Angus of course, was sure not to let any crumb go un-hoovered.
At first my shots were stolen, tricking Skippy into looking at me and trusting me and rewarding him with treats and then immediately ignoring him again as to not overwhelm him.
By the end of our two hours together he was accepting treats from my hand and almost posing for me…
After Angus and Skippy left, excitedly dancing around their mom at the promise of a park visit (and a walk since I had cruelly asked them over a dozen times “Wanna go for a walk?” to capture their expressions) I couldn’t help but smile and be charmed by the relentless way dogs can learn to trust so quickly…
And I am grateful that I was one of the ones Skippy decided to practice on…
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