Grunt, pant, whine, snort, squeek, squeek...
Back to the desensitization routine I learned from the canine behaviorist. We have her settling down really fast now with food, and everything I can throw at her in the backyard. She knows that we only move when she's calm.
So it was pretty hot this afternoon and I took the old dog and Rocket Dog to a big pond/lake not far from our house. I tied Rocket Dog to a tree and threw a few bumpers in the water for Bridget. Well... Rocket Dog started losing her mind.
GREAT!!!
Traded the dogs out, tied Bridget to the tree and made RD sit about 15 feet from the water's edge. Threw a white bumper as far as I could... and waited. And waited. And waited. OMG... the AGONY! The weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It was pathetic.
But eventually (10 minutes? 15?) she got tired of acting out and I walked back to her side. 5 or 10 more minutes of whining and squeeking and finally that got old, and we were able to heel to the side of the water and send her off to get the bumper.
We had to repeat the process quite a few more times. Each time it took less time for the hysterics to end. Then I traded the dogs... and let Bridget have some retrieves. And when it was Rocket Dog's turn, we had to go through the hysterics again... but less time was required to settle down. So we will be going back to the pond tomorrow and the next day and the next.
The thing is... the behaviorist's system is very helpful. I found when we got to the park, that RD was not responding to the low buzz on the collar per the Hillmann method. I think she was too high, too excited. That's OK!!! I would predict that we'll be able to go from the behaviorist's method back to resuming the Hillmann system in this new setting, just like we did in the backyard.