Wild bunny week adventures – We are seeing bunnies galore on our walks this week. We even had a record bunny count day!!! Continue reading to hear more about how our wild bunny week progressed!! Plus updates on Miss Isla’s fear of distant loud booms.
Wild bunny week!! 4/8/2023-4/14/2023
Record bunny counts!!
As hopefully you have seen by now, one of the things we do on our walks is to count different creatures that we see. And in the mornings, bunnies are usually by far the animals that get the highest counts. I would guess on average we see 10-15 bunnies. Our highest count in the mornings was twenty-eight prior to today. Today we counted thirty bunnies!!!
Both pups were so excited. Isla was especially excited when we found what looked like a mini-bunny playdate going on. At that point we had to stop and watch them run around down the street. Furthermore, it turned into a good training experience for not charging forward at full speed to try and chase after the bunnies during our walk.
Isla's fear of loud booms
We are also making considerable progress with Isla’s fear of noises such as gunshots or fireworks off in the distance. As she hears the noise, her first reaction is to look up at me immediately to see if I noticed it too. Before I was looking back at her and saying aloud to her that it was nothing to worry about. In my mind, she would understand what I was saying and know that she did not need to worry. However, I believe that in her mind I was acknowledging the noise and therefore it was something to be concerned about.
Beginning this week, I have been trying hard to not move my head and look down at her when she hears a noise that worries her. Instead, I am keeping my head forward and not saying anything aloud. This is working most of the time.
Occasionally, Isla still decides the sounds are a concern to her. Nonetheless I have been attempting to ignore her concern and she has been getting over it quickly. Hence if she does get to the point where she will not forget her concerns on one of our walks, we will head home, let her calm down and work on it again the next time we are out.
Thursday 4/13 - Happy Birthday Ross!!
Thursday morning walk - low wild bunny counts:(
Of course, with our exciting Tuesday of bunnies and Isla doing much better with her noise fears, today was the opposite. First, our morning walk ended with only seven bunnies. No other creatures either. So, a slow morning in that sense.
Then, towards the end of our walk, Miss Isla heard loud booms in the distance. I ignored them and her like I have been doing. However, she was not going for that today. The noises were scary today and we needed to head home right then, according to her.
Since we live about a block from a school, we try and avoid walking by there during the busy times in the morning when kids are going to school and then in the afternoons when kids are getting out of school. At the time when Isla heard the scary noises, it was during the busy school time, so we could not go directly home. I had to convince her that it was okay for us to take a little detour to avoid the melee of cars and kids. While she was not thrilled, she decided that was okay.
Fortunately, by the time we got through our detour and on the way home, Miss Isla was feeling better and had decided the world was not going to end yet.
Thursday Evening - Isla's fears come back
Unfortunately, our evening walk to the dog park was not better for Isla. We were close to home and the distant loud booms started again. We were able to get to the dog park, but by the time we were there, she was starting to be a basket case.
Isla is okay with the dog park, but she prefers our walks and hunting a bunny or lizard. So we went for just a short time so Rex would be able to run a little.
Considering Isla’s current state, we decided to try and make it into a game for her in the park. We went to different areas of the park and got her to run back and forth between us and made sure she was happy and excited.
Surprisingly, this worked for a while. However, once we were about three quarters of the way through our walk, Isla decided the world was going to end if we did not get home soon. Once she gets into this state of mind, there is not much we can do but to just let her be and get home as quickly as possible.
At that point, we finished our walk and Miss Isla made is home safely without the world ending again.
One thing we are trying to see if it will help Isla’s fears is CBD oil. It hasn’t been long enough yet to see if it makes a difference.
Please comment if anyone has other ideas or if you have experiences like this. Thanks!
