What's THAT Doing Here??

I am always a little surprised by the way Pajamas reacts to certain things. I think I have raised a fairly confident dog and she has definitely experienced many objects, environments and situations in her two short years. However, every so often something will take her by surprise and becomes very timid, nervous and shy.

This often occurs when we are walking through a park or forest and she spots something "unnatural" This could be someone's missing shoe, a pipe or electrical box of some kind or even......a plastic bag. While walking Pj in the park near my house early one morning, she spotted a white plastic bag laying in the grass. She approached it every slowly, as if trying to sneak up on it. Just as she gets close enough to reach her nose out and smell it a gust of wind comes and long and blows the plastic bag up into the air. Pajamas was completely shocked. She ran away, tail between her legs, barking. I couldn't help but laugh a little at her expense. You silly dog.

This morning a similar instance occurred while walking down the sidewalk. It was early on a Saturday morning and some newspapers that had been dropped off for the variety store on the corner had not been brought inside yet. Pajamas put on the breaks a few feet from the newspapers. She approached slowly, one foot at a time, neck stiff. She stops and stretches out her nose in order to give this strange object a good sniff before moving her paws to close. She starts to circle the object still sniffing, paws at a distance. After doing a semi circle sniff she apparently decided this object was no immediate threat to either her or her mommy and was then ready to continue on the walk as if nothing strange had happened.

I think it's important to let her be curious and approach the object at her own pace. Sometimes, I will approach the object without her which causes her a little stress at first, but when she sees me make contact with the object her body relaxes and she will usually come to investigate further after that.

- First Posted June 19th 2010