I saw this challenge on the No Dog About It Blog Thursday, at the time Thursday’s post was already up and Friday’s post was planned.

I mean the whole point of the Follow-Up Friday blog hop is to have a follow-up, what kind of host would I be if I didn’t?

I noticed yesterday that a couple of other bloggers did the challenge and I thought, oh good there’s still time for me.  I wandered over to 24 Paws of Love and realized the blog hop would end before today’s post.

Seeing my fellow blogger’s sharing their stories, made me a little misty and even though I mentioned it in a couple of comments, I thought it was worth sharing with everyone.

The challenge was such:

Tell us in a post what was the most monumental moment that you and your dog shared, that changed the course of your lives together.  How ever big or small, what happened that brought an understanding between you and your dog and brought your relationship closer than it was before.  What is that one story in your mind that stands out and you repeat over and over to anyone that will listen?  Tell us all about it!!

This is Delilah’s Brut Moment.

Delilah’s been with our family for 5 1/2 years.

In Delilah’s Story which you can find directly under my header, under the drop down labeled the Cast of Characters, I wrote about Delilah’s first day with us.  She was frustrating that day, but she was also strong and vulnerable.

 

The moment I watched her struggle to stay sitting up and not fall asleep was the moment I vowed, that I would not be another human that failed her.   I was determined to help her, yet I didn’t feel like we were bonded.

 

Early this spring when I had the most frustrating walk with her, (you can read about it here) I felt defeated.  I remember saying to Hubby, I don’t feel like I matter to her, it’s as if we aren’t bonded.  Sadly he agreed with me.

I love her, don’t get me wrong and I know she loves me, but I still didn’t feel like we were bonded.  Maybe it was me, I couldn’t tell you for sure.

I remember the moment it all changed for me, I was so proud of her, I could have burst.  It made me feel SO good that if I were Harry Potter I could have produced a Patronous. (Which by the way, I hope it would be a dog or a wolf.)

After I let myself wallow in my sorrow for a few days, I set out to find a way to bond with her.  I read, “Bonding With Your Dog” by Victoria Schade, which gave me some great insight. (Thank you Pamela!)

I have been wanting Delilah to try a nosework class, the training group that was offering it requires you take an intermediate dog and handler class first.  Since it was all positive based training, I thought what the hell, it never hurts to try different trainers.

I’d been doing positive based training on my own for some time, but I was super excited to find a positive training class.  I am one of those who learn better by seeing.

I had mentioned to the instructor Jackie, that Delilah sometimes reacted to other dogs.  Jackie suggested I really watch Delilah to determine what exactly she was reacting to.  She also suggested I begin using the LOOK command.

Using this command really helped Delilah focus on me.  As soon as I saw her tense up as if she was set to react, I would say LOOK and she would whip her head back around and refocus on me.

I think it was during the fourth (out of six) class, Jackie was working the class on the leave it command and was testing us, on how well we could redirect our dogs.

Jackie was going to come around and drop some treats on the floor near us, our goal was to redirect our dog to ignore, or leave the treats.

The class was small and people really had lots of space to spread out with their dogs, if you have a reactive dog, you can appreciate how important this really is.  As it turned out we ended up being the last pair tested.

I had Delilah’s attention as Jackie started around the room, I kept her attention with a treat up near my nose and i talked to her the entire time.

That’s right, focus on me.  You’re doing great.  What a good girl you are. We can do this. Were all phrases that came out of my mouth as one by one my classmates were put through the test.

I could hear Jackie making her way around the room and then it was our turn, Jackie approached us from the right side.

Now here’s the thing about Delilah and distractions, you can bounce a ball in front of her face all day long and she won’t even flinch, but drop a treat and all bets are off.

Delilah’s head turned slightly at Jackie’s approach but I was spot on, LOOK, she whipped her head back to me, LEAVE IT I said as a handful of pupperoni’s hit the floor.

There we were, her sitting and me standing, eyes locked.  We were a team.

To me, that was our bonding moment.

Did you have a bonding moment with your dog, one that stood out like no other?  Please share in the comments, I might not be responding to you, but I sure am reading them!

The word count for my NaNoWriMo book writing challenge is just over 3.600 words.