A Finna Tail

Finna doesn't really have a tail; she has a stub and after years with Ranger's magnificent and expressive plume it took me awhile to begin to decipher Finna's tail commentary. It's only been recently that I realized why it was so hard for me to read her tail language. For years Finna's stub was stiff; whether sticking straight up in arousal or clamped to her rear in fear her stub was never relaxed.

Watching her stub of a tail the other day I was thinking to myself how much easier it is to read Finna's stub today than it was in the beginning. That's when it hit me; Finna's tail today is relaxed most of the time. That's what time with us has done for Finna most of the time she's in a relaxed state and not the over stimulated, over aroused, crazed state she lived in for so long.

There really is hope for this crazy little psycho bitch from hell. More and more often I'm seeing a dog with bad habits and less and less I'm seeing a dog that's out of her head nuts. Don't get me wrong her bad habits are plenty scary and we don't take any chances with her but each day sees more tiny improvements.

Just today she was able to choose coming away from barking and leaping at the fence when the neighbors were out. She still couldn't sustain the choice but she was able to turn away and come almost to me before the territorial impulse kicked in again and drew her back to the fence. After a couple of times I got smart and ran to the enclosure when she tried to come back to me. The enclosure is in the back of the house and is a safe place with much less stimulation. It is so heartening to see her trying to make better choices even if she can't always keep those choices in place. At least today she knows there are options.

It's good to look back and know that the dog in this photo is not the dog we live with today.