#flying discs

Guinevere had a followup at the hospital. Her last visit in July was long and stressful. We expected this visit to have a lot of quiet waiting but not so much added stress. So I brought supplies to try to make the waiting better, and reduce overall stress for future trips. Indeed, right after we got there, Guinevere was already ready to bolt for home, or possibly just blindly into traffic.

The rope disc is one of Gwyn's current favorite activities, so once we were waiting alone in a room, we played some frisbee. Gwyn brightened up and relaxed significantly, even taking the frisbee to go lay down for a while.

Then Gwyn got bold enough to investigate my supplies bag, and found the hat I brought, too. First she played with the pom-pom and ties for a bit, then I put it on her and took it off several times (with appropriate treats).

By then Gwyn was feeling much calmer about being in a strange place with a history of stress, and began investigating the room too. Ridiculously adorable!

Because Gwyn's last visit was awful, the vets wanted to muzzle her for part of her exam. They were happy to move slowly, give treats, and wait for Gwyn to be comfortable at each step; they just also needed to reduce their own risk, entirely reasonable. We had just practiced "hat," of course, so I reminded Gwyn several times that other things go on her head and come back off just like hats, then buckled the muzzle while giving lots of treats. Once the exam was done, we practiced one more time taking the muzzle off (good girl!), putting it back on (lots of treats!), and taking it off again (good girl!).

Between fetch throws, I offer the toy back to Gwyn and say "Want me throw? Or Gwyn can have." Thing is, I wasn't sure she was capable of anything except "FOR THE LOVE OF DOG THROW IT AGAIN" (so I have to decide when to stop, every time).

But on Saturday, Gwyn took her disc back! She did, she wanted to play with the toy and not chase it again! I'm so proud of her, that's a huge accomplishment for my little girl. She called an end to the fetch all by herself, because she was done and wanted different play. Wow.