Sadie went to her first class today! Instead of jumping right in and overwhelming her, we walked circles to get her calmed and focused. Her job is to walk by my side and pay attention to me. She puts up a BIG front when she sees dogs because she’s afraid. In Sadie’s head, she needs to act tough from the start so no one messes with her. By being the leader on walks, we take that choice away from Sadie. She doesn’t need to decide how to greet anyone, that’s my job. Today she walked with me around lots of dogs and saw that nothing bad happened. The more experiences we have like this where Sadie sees she doesn’t need to prove anything, the more she can rest easy and take a back seat. She’s learning that other dogs can pass by, but all she needs to do is keep going and follow her leader.