Strangely, usually my e-mail receives updates from here...
Well, what i discovered there is nothing more dangerous than HOLDING a 30-foot line while the dog is doing those crazy zoomies. Yes, I have slowly started introducing long line POLITE walks plus teaching her to walk "behind" me but of course, we were only able to be polite until her demons hit her up again and yesterday she went batsht crazy on that line at the first feeling of freedom. She simply lost it:-) She cold not control herself, just darted past me in different directions as fast as she could, jump about, writhe on the ground, visibly overexcited, saying"ah-ah-ah!" and was getting so quickly out of control that before I could do anything got tangled, hit the end of the line a few times and screamed -got scared, tangled more, it was madness. I had to untangle a screaming ball of fury and she was rolling her eyes and panting and would not listen to anything, just so excited that after 15 minutes of this we could not walk anywhere or do anything.
So I just let the bloody line go. She is on the remote collar that we barely use on low volume, only for extreme moments, it's mostly just sitting on her neck "just in case" and she is very good with it. So i with a heavy heart decided to simply let her run, imagining already in my mind how my husband's going to kill me for letting her go free, if I lose the dog or if she gets injured somehow. And I let her go. I mean, just GO. Let her drag the line, but released her. Initially she tried to chase everything, including an extremely fat raven, and got a correction from me, then refused to come over, got one again, every time she would do right by me I would give her a nice treat and a lot of pets, and after about 30 minutes the insanity was gone! She was playing with me, she never left my side even after making very wide circles running around me, yes, I did have to correct her a few times but you know what, in half an hour I had a dog that without any commands came up to me and HEELED without a leash next to me all the way through the park, that only needed verbal corrections in about 70% of the time and that was visibly happy to be with me. I didn't let her go play with the dogs with a line on-I don't want them all tangled, but it seems that If he wears the collar and If she has been well-walked beforehand (and she was!) she can totally run free for a bit. I was actually shocked that she behaved like a dog and didn't go away completely, just kinda stayed wit me, keeping track of where I am, running up when called, willingly doing our obedience commands..It felt like I have a real dog, and she trusted me. She was dragging a long line, of course, just in case, but after an hour of off-leash walking she was tired like she has never been! When my husband came home, she rolled at our feet and licked us, and we scratched her, and she has been with us all day out of the crate, which is not always the case-and was SO obedient.
Just no more holding the line. It looks so scary when she tangles and screams! I think it's more frightening to her than painful, but she looks like a mummy and yells so loud she can wake up the dead...poor Yumeko. She doesn't do it on the leash when she knows she has to behave, but I guess freedom is different:-)
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