These boys continue to grow up and gain skills every day… I’ve just been remiss in telling y’all about it.
Since their second set of vaccines occurred at 10 weeks dictated by their nomograph results, taking a few more risks out in public has become prudent. Until now we kept our feet-on-the-ground adventures to our own driveway & back yard as well as the ranch where we’ve herded sheep for the last five years. To me, the safety of the ranch is as much “our own bugs” as my own back yard.
But now we have started to cautiously venture out down our street and into other environments. We did some individual loose leash walks yesterday that had us conveniently coming across a neighbourhood construction zone. Workers were banging hammers, using a circular saw and moving a bobcat around as they prepared forms for pouring concrete. This was a perfect conditioning event that i could not have orchestrated better!
They each showed curiosity with appropriate apprehension where loud noise was concerned. A reaction to a loud or strange noise is to be expected however what we strive to create in these puppies is enough foundation confidence that they learn and recover quickly. My only regret about the encounters is that I didn’t think to video more. I only briefly caught Shazam’s reaction to the circular saw and while the video is likened to “The Blairwitch Project”, the audio is revealing. They each did really well and benefited greatly from the time taken to linger rather than rushing past and to stay focused on “the walking” rather than “the experiencing”. I’m hoping the timing of my clinical schedule gives an opportunity to watch the concrete pour today.
For more posts and videos around conditioning to loud noises check out: