Tails of a Shy Greyhound: "It's 1am, It Must Be Playtime!"

3am - Matchbox Twenty (or 1am...I just change the lyrics)

Nighttime
Last night was another one of "those nights."
From 12:45am - 2:00am I felt what it must be like to have a crying newborn in the house. Seriously, that's what I kept thinking..."I don't know how my friends with babies do it!"
I don't get it- I thought I tired her out with a 1.5 mile night walk, but I guess not.
I have no problem at all bringing Gracie out if she has to go to the bathroom. I need to go in the middle of the night, too...so I understand if maybe she will have to at times, too. BUT, she is starting to manipulate me into turning this into play time and I need to nip it in the bud.
The first time she barked I took her right out "Ok, ok...she has to go."
The second time I begrudgingly took her out again "Ok...ok...she peed, maybe now she has to poop."
The third time I wanted to ignore (and I should have) but I was worried about the neighbors since our houses are so close to each other and I was worried about Craig who was trying to sleep. Out we went, where she just sniffed around and played with her ball.
The fourth time, same thing...I should have ignored it but for others' sake I did not.
Out we went again, but this time I did not turn the outside light on. She sniffed the barbecue and walked around, then came back in.

After that, she went to bed upstairs. But remember, this whole barking and 4 trips outside fiasco lasted 1.25 hours. Not good at that hour.

Craig leaves tomorrow for France for a week for work. I still have a week off for summer break. So next week is going to be the "Ignore Grace's Nighttime Barks Unless She Really Needs to Go" show. I'll talk to my neighbors today about it so they are prepared.

Walking
Onto some good news....she walked super nicely with me last night! We went out at about 10pm and she had a loose leash MOST of the walk! Wooo! I think the key is going when it is super quiet in the neighborhood - early morning and later at night. That is when she has the most success. This morning she also had an awesome walk! We even encountered 2 kids - one was across the street from us with her dad walking the dogs. Gracie heard her and freaked out a little. The guy stopped to talk to me for a minute from across the street and Grace slowly calmed down. Normally, this is something that would cause her to pull the whole way home, but she calmed down and was able to go back to a loose leash quickly. I was so proud!
The other incident was when a little boy was talking loudly to his mom while going to their car. Grace heard it first, stopped, and looked visibly stressed, but after we passed she got back to her calm self and a loose leash just a few houses away from that. Way to go! Small steps!

So, her walks are improving...but the time leading up to the walk is not. This is what I really need to work on. She hates when I take the leash out. She hates when the leash is first put on (becomes a stone statue) and she hates walking out of the house and through the back gate to begin her walk.
But, once I get her out that back gate and down the side of our house she really seems to enjoy being out and walking.

I think it is much like my fear of needles, where the "build-up" is much worse than the actual event. I was so bad with needles that I would get as stressed as Gracie is with her leash. I would not want to go to the doctor, I'd sometimes postpone appointments that I knew would include drawing blood, I'd feel stressed the whole day of my appointment, and I'd actually cry as they were drawing the blood. Full on CRY. And shake. Just like Grace does with the leash sometimes.
But, when it was all over I would always say, "That wasn't so bad! WHY did I get so worked up?"
Slowly, I learned that getting all worked up for a needle was not necessary. It is not as bad as I thought!
I am hoping one day that clicks with Gracie and she realizes that she actually enjoys walks, and the leash is just a necessary part of those walks.

I probably should have been doing this all along, but I am going to start to do more Desensitization/Counter Conditioning with her leash inside the house and in the yard.
Like I've said before, this is a learning process for me too!

Kids
Even though she had progress on her walk this morning with kids, she did freak out in the house yesterday when she heard kids playing outside...

It broke my heart to see her this sad and scared.

I am trying hard to associate the kids' noises while they are playing outside to positive things - pets, treats, etc.
A friend of mine had a great idea of playing kids' tv shows softly in the background to try to desensitize her. I am definitely going to try that and then raise the volume as she gets more and more used to it. The adoption group also gave the idea of recording my students at recess when school starts and playing it back to Grace at a low volume while associating it with positive things. Hopefully these methods will work for her. I'd really like her to one day love kids.

Comfort
She is definitely feeling more comfortable around us and continuing to come up to us to pet her even more. Normally when I get home from being out anywhere she stays on her bed downstairs, but yesterday she actually got up and was standing in the living room looking at me.
She also has started coming into the kitchen more when I am doing things in there.
And.....last night she even laid on rug in the living room near me AND came up to me while I was on the couch for pets.
PROGRESS!