Empathetic isn't always great!

Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Yellow.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 2.
Tears: No.
Overall day: Quiet.

Pepper's training last night was the last class of his "Beginner's" lessons. Furry Mama was extremely proud of him. For the first time last night, the owner took the class. As Creative Clara mentioned once before, she is very strict. She takes no nonsense. She thinks that Furry Mama is being too "soft" with Pepper. Last night Clever Bird began to understand what she means. One of the other women in the class has a bad "sharp" cough. It was freaking Pepper out. He did his thing of whimpering, then backing away from Baggy to the end of his lead. Furry Mama automatically a) looked at him b) spoke to him in a "reassuring" voice c) walked towards him and d) bent over to stroke him. All wrong apparently. It confirms his fear. Now Clever Bird should really know this. Grotty Groom learnt it the hard way with Wesley. The best thing to do is ignore the reaction. TOTALLY. Don't look. Don't speak. Don't react. Don't touch. Either turn your back on him or better yet (for him, certainly not for Baggy when in a public place), do a happy song and dance! Then he will see that Furry Mama is clearly not bothered by whatever "it" is, and will feel safe with her and come to her.

This is so true of Wesley. If Grotty gives any "Good boy", patting type of reassurance and looks at the scary "thing", he gets way worse. If Baggy ignores it totally, even looks in the opposite direction and sings a happy song, he gets over it. Last night Furry Mama was told in no uncertain terms that she was making Pepper more anxious. Interestingly Clever Bird had noticed the two other women with their (also very nervous) rescue dogs, making them worse by reacting to them. Furry Mama tried the "ignore him" approach and it seemed to work. So they have signed up for the intermediate classes!

Home again, Hormonal Hannah totally forgot to feed the pooch (or Baggy for that matter). She remembered at nearly ten. An hour later, after Baggy had got hooked on her infinite free "lives" on Candy Crush and totally lost track of time, she heard a weird noise. Pepper was very sick. Clever Bird couldn't work out how much food could have been in such a little tummy. Then he was sick twice more - just yucky slime. Freda Fretter was worried. But he curled up on the bed with Baggy and went to sleep. So today Furry Mama decided that Baggy and Pepper should take it easy. Baggy is still not over her cough and needed to wash her hair. So they've stayed in all day and rested. Pepper seems to be a lot calmer when Furry Mama is not constantly pandering to his every whimper! Number one furry has just got home, so Pepper is now a very happy pooch. A friend is arriving for the weekend later, so Clever Bird will be interested to see how he reacts. Fish and chips all round. Happy Friday baggetts................