Frustration

It's NOT this warm here right now btw, this is a photo from last summer.

Tried out the new lead rope today.  Starbuck's just starting to go into heat and was a megabrat, and I'm about to start my period and am a megabitch so it was kind of like clash of the clumsy hormonal titans.  At first she did great while we were in the aisles and she was near her buddies but as soon as we got into the parking lot (full of some mildly scary stuff and has good footing so my choice for leading lessons lately) she started acting up. Not just spooking (which there was a fair amount of) and running past me but also lots of dancy prancy stuff, head tossing and bolting in the direction of her friend Coco.  She reminded me of a certain bratty adolescent who used to throw temper tantrums when her parents wouldn't let me... oops, I mean her... go to rock concerts and I realized yet again why I prefer 4 legged children to the 2 legged ones.

I got really pissed off and kept at it until she gave some semblance of being under control, cueing her backward every time she rushed past me-- I think we must have walked half a mile backwards all in all.  And all the time what really bothered me was thinking that if she's going to completely ignore me either way I might as well use a lead rope which is less severe.  But it's the first time I used that rope, it was cold and windy and sunny, she's going into heat, I wasn't in a particularly zen frame of mind... so many reasons for things to go to hell in a handbasket.

So I'll try again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.  And bit by bit she'll get better, and if not at least at some point she'll stop being a teenager.  Right, Mom and Dad?