*Supposedly* a Libra new moon ritual will bring you love and good fortune. Well look-ey there—last night just happened to be a Libra new moon! Jasmine and I burned another one of her tug toys as a sacrifice, and I’m hoping it will bring good fortune especially since that freaking toy is the reason she tore her ACL two weeks ago.
The vet says she could have hurt herself doing anything (which isn’t reassuring at all) and channeling all blame and negative energy into a single object and then burning it just makes me feel better. I don’t know what other people do to feel empowered, but I like to burn things. That tug toy was filled with bad juju, and I had no regrets watching it shrivel into dust.
Jasmine, on the other hand, had no idea what I was doing last night. This was the second tug toy burning ritual she’s watched me do, and both times she’s gawked at me as if I’m some sort of witch.
At least that morning she didn’t look at me like I was nuts. We had our final evaluation, and we passed! Guys. GUYS! Jasmine is officially a certified personal protection dog!
We started out with obedience, and there was an on-leash and off-leash portion. Most handlers chose to do the entire routine off leash (and in practice that’s what I had been doing), but this time, I chose to play it safe and latched Jasmine to me like a tetherball.
We walked/jogged/and trudged, did a down in motion, a down from a distance, and strolled around some more. I’ve never walked in a straighter line than yesterday.
We started the second half of the morning with handler protection, and I think I blacked out halfway through because I can’t remember any of this. The DW is so good at acting, and I know this is going to surprise you…but I’m not. I just remember my girl coming to protect me from being molested, and pride flooding my every cell.
For this drill, you’ll see that she was laying down a distance from me, and she had to respond to my reaction when I was attacked. She also had to let go when I told her to.
And lastly…the recall drill. This drill was twofold: 1) I was supposed to send Jazz out to bite and then call her back before reaching the target; and 2) once she returned to me, I was to send her out for a bite again, let her latch on, and then call her off the bite without touching her whatsoever, AND once she lets go, she can’t rebite.
I know, it’s a lot. That’s why I just let my head tip over for my brains to fall out and listened to whatever the DW told me to do.
Best to just show you.
With Jasmine’s bum knee, I wasn’t sure how she’d do during the recall. Usually she whips around quickly and comes back, but at this point, she’d been moving around and she was probably getting sore. You’ll see she does a big loop here which she’s never done.
I was nervous/anxious/stressed because I didn’t want her to do anything that made her knee uncomfortable, and I promised myself that if she started limping at any point, I was going to pull her out and we’d retest after she recovered from surgery. But the vet had said Jasmine would be able to complete the examination, and she did! My girl freaking did it, and she slayed like a boss with a torn ACL!!
I’m so proud of her and what we’ve been able to accomplish in 4 months. From her not knowing her name to being my protector, I feel like I’m living in that parallel universe where everything seems to go as planned. I used to just reference that world to make myself feel better…and now my reality is better than any fictional scenario I could imagine.
It’s only the beginning for me and Jasmine, and with her surgery next Wednesday, that will be another hurdle to overcome. But I know that we’ll be able to do it with the help of our K9 family and the Dog Whisperer.
