Heidi

She picked out the green toy herself at PetSmart today.

Heidi is a very timid girl. Today, we worked a little on socialization. The husband and I took a trip to PetSmart to pick up a 20 foot training lead (I'm starting with teaching her how to heel). When she first got out of the car, she was a giant ball of nerves. She didn't know where to look first, and she kept spinning and weaving around. Finally, I had her sit, got down on her level, and rubbed all over her body while talking calmly to her and telling her what a good girl she was. This was amazingly effective and served to center Heidi. After that, she was fine. I introduced her to some other dogs, as well as some children. The children made me nervous - they moved too fast around her, and sometimes didn't listen to what I told them. My heart was in my throat the whole time, despite how carefully I was supervising. She did fine, but she was terrified. She shook. I'll probably back off a little on the hand's on contact with children for now and just work on having her around them consistently. She did fine with our nephew last night, but she avoided him like the plague.

We're doing well otherwise. She continues to limp, and I'm concerned that her joint problems may be something more sinister than a life on concrete -- something like polyarthritis or the like. I'm taking her to work with me tomorrow (both for the socialization and to give her a good physical exam).