Getting warmer...

Hershey is slowly warming to strangers - and we're thrilled! Yesterday, on a day off, we took Hershey to the dog park where she wandered around on our walk and then met with a cute little white dog named "Squirt" and her (?) owner Dana. We had a nice chat with Dana, who told us about her experiences with the dog park - she had an attitude very similar to ours - if dogs want to play rough, that's fine, but she wants no part of it for herself or for Squirt. In fact, she told us about how one dog was wrestling so badly with her little dog that Squirt actually had bite marks that were bleeding all down her stomach. How awful!

So Hershey enjoyed playing with a fun little dog. And shortly after, to our surprise and delight, she let Dana pet her! It wasn't a long pat, but she was totally cool with letting a relative stranger come pat her!

Later on that day, I had some friends over for games, and Hershey was on her short leash and Chris was clicker-ing her whenever she was calm. She did a pretty darn good job, although she did have a few barking fits when the guys were loud or surprised her by coming into the room. Nothing that was out of hand though - and that's another big improvement. For the most part, her whining and barking was more of a "I want to come over" call, but she's not ready for that yet, especially in the tight quarters of our kitchen.

Anyhow, we'll try this again next week - and hopefully she'll get more and more used to guests!