Hanna continues to do well. This is a picture of her sleeping on the way home from Christmas. She did well at my parents house and enjoyed running in their yard, even playing on the fringes of the other dogs' game of fetch.
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I have followed Hanna’s progress since she came to TX GSP rescue – sounds like the “baby steps” are adding up! I just wanted to pass along something we recently learned while attending obedience classes with our two rescue GSP’s, Rhoda and Pepper. Perhaps you already know this - it was a revelation to us. Pepper is a happy-go-lucky pup with no real issues, while Rhoda is usually stressed out by new situations, and obedience school fell in to that category. She didn’t like the other dogs, the other people, or the place. She spent the entire first lesson trying to escape out the door. Our instructor asked us to put a tight fitting t-shirt on Rhoda for the next lesson, which we did. Noticeable difference! She quit trying to escape and was much more attentive to me. Our instructor said it is something akin to swaddling a baby – it just calms them down and gives them more self-confidence. She said there is actually a product called something like a “thunder shirt” made specifically for dogs that are afraid of storms. Trainers have experienced success using these shirts for low self-confidence dogs in other situations that tend to stress them out. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would be skeptical. I haven’t researched the thunder shirt myself, nor have I purchased one, but anytime Rhoda seems to be stressed by a new situation in her little world (like construction noise in our yard or lots of company during the holidays), we put her t-shirt on her and it seems to help her relax.
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