Wufi was once again being over-excited, when I suddenly remembered what Ferocious used to do. Ferocious was the dominant dog at the place where I got Lala, don´t ask why they named her that; I don´t understand those people either. Those dogs were pretty much feral dogs that were just simply used to human contact (even though they officially belonged to those people, they didn´t really do anything other than feed them). So by dominant, I mean dominant, and not insecure, defensive, and aggressive. (People often seem to mistake those dogs for being dominant. An example of that are dogs with Small Dog Syndrome.)
Whenever the one-year-olds got over-excited, she would take their muzzles in her mouth and push them down.
So when Wufi was acting over-excited today, I decided to try that. I grabbed her muzzle, making sure my arm came from on top of her, and not in front of or next to her (something I don´t usually do, as I don´t want to intimidate her by coming from the top). Instead of wrapping my fingers completely around her muzzle and holding it, which is what my dad always does to freak her out and make her even more nervous and excited, (because he´s an idiot who refuses to believe me that running around crazily and whining and peeing everywhere does not necessarily mean that she is happy,) I kept my fingers straight, imitating the bite. If Wufi had wanted to, she could have easily just walked away, I was just symbolically holding my hand in that position, without applying any pressure or trying to forcefully keep her there.
Instead of walking away, she lowered her head and tail, (the tail was lowered, not between her legs! And I´m telling you, Wufi is the kind of dog who will have her tail between her legs if she is even the tiniest bit fearfull of something.) and then started going down slowly, until she was eventually in a lying down position. When I removed my hand she got back up, but I immediately grabbed her muzzle again before she could start running wildly around the place again, and she slowly lay down again. When I removed my hand the second time, she stayed down, watching me alertly. (not fearfully!)
After that, when I got up, she continued calmly lying down and watching me. When I called her, she jumped down and trotted over to me (instead of racing up, failing to stop, and running past me the way she usually does
).Later, after my dad had gotten her excited again, I tried it again, only this time, I didn´t came from on top. Instead, I came from the front and guess what... it didn´t work! She just completely ignored me! I pulled my hand back and tried again, coming from on top the way I had the first time, and it worked!
Now I´m wondering if this was just luck and is just something strange that Wufi does, or if it is actual dog communication. The thing is, I´ve never seen/heard any dog trainer mention anything like this before. One of the dog trainers (my favorite one, the one who got me started) that I went to with Lala did something like this (exept that he also did apply a bit of pressure to push them down) to teach the dogs to lie down on command, but he never mentioned anything about it being natural dog behavior. Then again, he didn't explain any of the other things he did either... He just told people what he was doing, then chose a dog to demonstrate it on, and people saw it work and decided he was right. He never said anything about why the dogs reacted the way he did. (Probably because most people there wouldn´t have been interested in that anyway, they only cared that it worked.)
If you think I seemed kind of defensive as I was explaining what I did, that´s because there are people out there who will call you cruel if you even touch a dog with your hand, unless it specifically comes to you and nudges you for attention. If you just randomly touch a dog, it is considered hitting, and therefore abusive. Have you ever seen one of those idiots? It´s sad, isn´t it?
Aaaand two weeks ago I went to the beach with her, and I managed to coax her to jump into the river that flows into the ocean. The next time we went to the beach, she just walked straight into the water, without even hesitating. In fact, she kind of seemed to feel safer in the water than on the sand. I think that is because of conditioning. When she was in the water, I paid special attention to keeping her calm, but when we were just walking on the beach, I wasn´t paying as much attention to her, and due to my carelessness, she kind of got into a bit of a scared state (not frantic though), and now it has just become a habit that she gets scared on the sand, and feels relaxed in the water. (Only the river though, I haven´t tried making her go into the actual ocean.)
She is also getting less naive. Today when I wanted to wash her, she actually realized what was going on when I got the towel and took off her collar. We lost the cat collar when we accidentally
went swimming in the ocean (due to the changing tides 
). Unlike before, she was not happily wagging her tail as I carried her into the bathroom.And we also went to the vet again, but this time it was a different vet, and this one said she had fungus and mites! Then he just gave us some new ointment and nothing else... (we´re beginning to question if they even know what they are doing...)
At the vet I also saw a litter of adorable puppies lying around. There were seven of them and they didn´t even have their eyes open yet.
That is all. There will be no updates during Christmas times because
When we get back I might post one last update, and that will be it. She is now a perfectly normal house dog and there is nothing out of the ordinary to report.
