All fours on the ground

Efeste is making excellent progress with seeing, hearing and experiencing the outside world.  We take her everyday (sometimes 2-3 times a day) out into the world.  I usually take one dog for a walk solo then have Efeste in the front pack.  Each day she's getting more comfortable & more curious - exactly what we want.

 

This is how Efeste now likes to ride - this was yesterday 8/26. The girl wants to see what's going on!

 

Here's how she use to ride in the front pack - this was on 8/21

 Yesterday I took Aurora and Efeste and thought I'd put Efeste down on the ground to see how that worked out.  This series of videos is over 15 minutes and you can see how she progress from being scared/unsure to being comfortable and playful. 

 

And many thank to Aurora for being such a patient girl and good role model!

 

Off we go - Efeste isn't sure this is a good idea. 

 

 

 

You can see the feel of the sidewalks then the noise of car are a lot.  

 

 

Still worrisome but, she goes potty on lead and is getting curious with the environment.

 

 

After about spending 45 seconds on the ground then she comes up, back in the front pack where she's comfortable.  Then after about 3 minutes of front pack it's back down on the ground.  And we repeat this over and over and over.

 

 

Different textures and she's feeling more comfortable - notice her body language from the first videos forward.

 

 

More textures and noises

 

 

Moving right along...

 

 

And then we have fun with the stick - notice Efeste is pretty relaxed.  Big difference from the first video to the last!

 

 

Given how well she did, we need to find her a harness for more walking.  We'll be going shopping this week.

 

I believe she progressed quickly because of a number of things:

 

1) We've created a good foundation to set Efeste up for success.

2) All of the work is done in small chunks of time and we stop the work while it's going well.

3) We keep practicing over and over

4) We continue to reinforce Efeste for her hard work

5) We don't force her when she's clearly unsure or scared

 

  

And what was even more amazing was this once we got home!

 

 

And then this!  

 

 

The little munchkin is surprising us left and right -- you go girl!  This was her first attempt at trying at stairs.  Such a brave little gal.  As you can imagine, Efeste was ready for a nap and off I went to work.