Groovy's progress

I haven't talked all that much about Groovy lately and that's because she's been going through a bad period.  Since about February she's been really scared of stuff again.  We had highs and lows in Feb and March but April and May were just full of lows and "just OK".  In April she did really well one day at a disc dog competition however the next day she freaked out completely.  Other than agility class I made a point to not take her anywhere major to kind of let her brain reset.  In May Jack tried taking her to that same park the competition was at but with no one around and she couldn't handle it at all.  In agility class she did OK but not great.  The past several classes I've had to pull her out of her crate in the car to go - but she does OK once we are there.  I started to get really concerned which prompted me to do some research online about homeopathic treatments for dogs with fear and stress.  One of the first things I read about was supplementing with Vitamin B complex.  I recalled hearing that from a woman on a aussie health list a long while back and so I thought I'd give it a try.  It's something I had around the house already and it's water soluble so why not.  Groovy's been on it about 3 weeks now I think.  Whether or not it is the reason for our recent progress I'm not sure but I do have a different dog on my hands lately!  I've noticed more confidence around the house... she wasn't getting spooked by noises in the yard as easily.  Two weeks ago when our friend Allison came over with her dog Kicker that we were dog sitting she did really well with her being here.  This past Friday our friend Chris came over to practice disc with Jack and Groovy did really well with him too - she even played frisbee WITH him.  Saturday I took her to Sally's house and she got out of the car right away, walked in like she owned the place and was happy to greet Sally and Kathryn.  She's only been there once and that was a year ago.  She played disc with Jack in Sal's yard and did a little agility too!  On Sunday we had a fathers day gathering at my mom and dad's and since my brother and his kids couldn't make it I decided to take her along.  She did pretty good.  She warmed up to my sister right away, to my brother in law after a while and sort of warmed up to my teenage nephews later on.  The big win of the evening though was that she'd play the entire time.  Sure she was eyeing them up suspicious of their next move but she'd chase frisbees and balls that they'd throw.  She begged food from them and did tricks for food during dinner.  She just wasn't all that sure about them when they moved around but overall did really good for not knowing them at all and the behavior I saw was more typical of aussie adolescent angst that I've seen before.

So... hopefully this is a new leaf we are turning over.  I know I've said before it's 1 step forward 2 steps back with her but this sort of feels like maybe we are doing 2 or 3 steps forward and maybe 1/2 or 1 step back.  We shall see...

In other good and related news her disc drive has increased A LOT over the past 1-2 months.  Jack is REALLY enjoying playing with her in the yard and she's got some neat moves they are working on (some of which can be seen in the video I posted the other day).

So hum, burn incense, pray and keep your fingers crossed we continue heading the right direction!