Day 11: Huge Progress!!!

Day 11:  Today, Pippa made quite a bit of progress and I'm very excited about it.

This morning, when I let Pippa out of her crate, I just turned the crate so that it was facing the open door to the back yard.  I opened her crate and told her "outside, go potty!"  I've told her that every single time I pick her up and carry her out.  This morning, she ran from her crate out in to the backyard and ran straight to the grass to potty!!!!  When she came back in, she headed for her corner and sprawled out in it.

At lunch time, I had to run out for a bit, so I picked her up and carried her in to the living room.  Once I had her crate in sight, I set Pippa down and told her to "go kennel."  Again, I've been saying this to her every single time I pick her up and put her in the crate.  As soon as her feet hit the ground, she ran to her kennel and sat in the back of it.  When I got home from lunch, I thought Pippa might like a nice soft bed in her corner, instead of just the hard floor.  So, I found a big dog bed that would perfectly fit the corner, and set it there.  When I let Pippa out of her crate, she ran to her corner, stopped, and gingerly got on the dog bed.  I could tell she wasn't real sure of it, as she lay in the corner with her head pressed to the wall, which seems to be her "I'm scared" posture.  I went back in to my home office and just left her alone to settle in to the dog bed.  I got up to check on her a bit later and found that she'd moved one side of the dog bed away so that she could lay on the floor.  I'm actually thrilled that she felt comfortable enough to do that, rather than just laying frozen in fear on the bed.  Since she doesn't want the bed, it got picked up and put back in another room.

This evening, for our last potty outing before bed, I decided to see if I could get Pippa to walk all the way from the hallway to outside on her own.  The real challenge is just getting her to stand up.  She was laying against the linen closet door, so I just very slowly started opening the door.  She sat up and as I kept opening the door, she stood.  Then, in a happy voice, I said "Pippa, outside, go potty!"  She trotted in to the living room and started heading for her crate.  I told her again that she needed to go outside, and she turned away from her crate to go outside!  While we were out there, she of course went potty, and then she spent some time exploring the yard.  I caught her staring at me, so I clapped my hands and called her to me.  She actually came towards me and got to within 3 feet before she remembered that she's scared and veered off.

Once I let the dogs in, I was hoping that I could tell Pippa to kennel and get her to go in, but she ran to her corner instead.  I got her to stand up again by opening the linen closet again.  Once she was standing, I told her to "go kennel" and she went in and sat in the back!  I'm hoping that this will continue and that I won't be having to pick her up and carry her quite so much.  If I can get her comfortable moving in the direction I want her to go, then I can start re-introducing the leash to her.