Balloon theory: progress & FAILS

If you poke a balloon, then some other part of the balloon will bulge out. If you poke a balloon hard enough, it'll pop.

Training Frankie is like poking a balloon. He's getting a lot better with men, but suddenly other things are explosively terrifying.

Let's alternate between points of progress and the exploding-balloon fails...

**PROGRESS: MEN !**
Frankie now greets (most) men with a friendly bark and a tail wag. He has become very territorial of our apartment building, but will eventually "say goodbye" to people or things. Plus, he is now friends with Brian, Jim and Colin! Before I tried to get him to meet these three dudes, I had a working theory that Frankie warms up fastest to runner-skinny men. This was based on his rapid appreciation and friendship of Nick (who remains the only man he's humped-- liked him a bit TOO much...), Adam and Andrew (the dog trainer). So far the theory is still holding-- it took a few tries for him to befriend Brian, but he pretty much instantly befriended Jim and Colin.

Colin petting Frankie; Frankie on alert for carrots!

I guess I can't blame Frankie for warming up to skinny guys at the same rate he warms up to women. Except since he's just 10lbs and pretty much all adult humans he meets are over 100lbs, I think the issue isn't actually a matter of how skinny the dude is. I think Frankie must like how skinny men move....I can't blame him, skinny men got the smooth moves!

Anyway, this brings the tally to 8 male friends! Go Frankie!

**FAIL: "WHAT ABOUT JENNY!??!?!?!?!!"**

Frankie really loves our roommate Jenny. She's totally a part of his pack and this is where the problems start, because you see, Frankie thinks the pack needs to always be together under his protection. But Jenny is an independent woman who does what she wants.

"I can come home when I want, I can leave when I want, I can eat when I want, I can run when I want, I can sleep when I want!" --> concepts Frankie is having trouble understanding.

If Jenny comes home when we are about to leave for a walk or run, it takes a lot of patience and coaxing to get Frankie to leave the apartment. Conversely, if Frankie can tell Jenny got home while we're out, he tries everything he can to get home ASAP and check on her.

Today this almost led to disaster. We were doing our pre-breakfast walk on the trail where he generally is very well-behaved off-leash and typically sits at the trailhead so I can put the leash back on him for us to return home. Today was not a typical day. We were near the trailhead and suddenly Frankie stood alert, he glanced at me and then suddenly made like the road runner all the way back to our apartment (about a quarter of a mile).

"Peace out, bitches!! I'm outta here!!!!"

That meant he crossed a street and parking lot without me. Luckily it was about 7am so the only person out and in car was one of our dog-owning neighbors who is familiar with Frankie. He had stopped his SUV and waited for me to get Frankie before driving.  I caught up to Frankie at the entrance of our apartment and forced him to walk a different loop with me before using a different entrance than the one he had run to to return inside. When we got back it was clear that Jenny had left for the office-- probably her biking by on the road was what inspired him to suddenly make like a valkyrie back to our fortress.

Anyway, THERE IS HOPE. Andrew had a bunch of suggestions for things Jenny and I can practice so Frankie will stop freaking out so much at her unpredictable schedule.

**PROGRESS: THE BRIDGE OF DOOM AND DISEASED RATS**

Remember this lovely and tranquil bridge?

Yeah, well to Frankie it still is this:

"Must we truly pass through Mordor to get home??? PLEASE NO!!!!!"

That said, he is getting more courageous every day and we haven't had any more 20 minute stand offs -- hell, we haven't even had to deal with a 5 minute standoff! Part of it is that during the day the bridge scares him less so he can be coaxed to walk on it. At night the bridge still totally terrifies him, I'll tell him to come but he'll just come to the edge and sit there like this:

So, I'll pick him up, walk a couple meters and set him down on the bridge. Then he walks as fast as he can until he gets to the other side where he gets rewarded for surviving the journey through Mordor.

This is basically how I reward him each time he crosses the bridge.

**FAIL: "I USED TO RUN WITH YOU? REALLY? I FORGET THAT. IT HAPPENED 5 DAYS AGO? FUNNY, I DON'T RECALL." **

Today's the fourth consecutive day where we have not run together. It's really like he forgot he used to run with me and I have to reset all the parameters in his brain to get him going again. I've been ending my runs by putting him on the running leash (yes, we use a different, shorter, ultra reflective leash for runs!) and then we go outside. It's as if all the training we've accomplished getting him to be well-behaved on walks only counted when it was the walking-leash and we have to totally re-do everything is he's on the running leash and I'm wearing a sport bra!

I maybe should have ended this post on a positive note, but for now having to reset all the running parameters is extremely frustrating because this dog has so much energy he really needs his runs.... I guess at least my hamstrings/glutes are starting to get extra jacked from dropping into a squat every two steps to get him to come...

This is basically me beckoning Frankie.

It's a slow process but hopefully we'll get there...until then, instead of runnin' with the devil, it's just those mean ole walkin' blues.