*Warning* This is a complaining post!
Despite Reagan's teeter successes, I remain guarded about any sort of agility career. Her tolerance for traveling in my van is declining. In hindsight, I should not have taken her to Perry in July. It was too many hours (two) of travel in too few days. I have not been able to reclaim the progress we had made prior to Perry... Dang it! But I am not going to beat myself up about it. I would have tested a longer route sooner or later. I just found out sooner it was simply too far and always will be.
Reagan will no longer eat while traveling so I have stopped using the Manners Minder (click here if you don't know what that is). She pants, shakes, and startles with greater frequency. I have simply stopped watching her in my rear view mirror and drive as gently as possible. She has not refused to load, but some resistance is showing and her eagerness to leave the house is diminishing. I won't make her go.
I have entered Reagan into a couple of local agility trials, but I am having second thoughts. The local trials are still a 35 minute drive. Can she handle that 2 or 3 days in a row? Maybe I should only take her to my agility field 3 days a week and quit trying to compete. It is the best place to maximize activity and I think Reagan enjoys it thoroughly.
I may attempt to counter condition the van one more time, but I'm not willing to utilize my car until it cools off. Even so, do I really want to put forth the effort on rebuilding something so breakable? Not really.
Remember the Mutt Muffs? We have been playing around with them again. They are suppose to protect dog ears from loud noises. Sometimes they stay in place and sometimes they do not.
I am not quite ready to pull the plug, but I think its unlikely Reagan will recover completely. It is just such a frustrating disappointment because she also has to be so much fun to train and so talented. Just a bright and funny little greyhound that few will ever get to see. That is my complaint for the day.
