[Dailydrool] Dancing with dogs

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

Last Saturday our Elsinore returned to her dance lessons (freestyle  
class) with the teacher she adores. She was thrilled to be back in  
the dance studio again and remembered all her steps, even though she  
hadn't practiced many of them in some time. She was not thrilled to  
learn that young Charlie is now taking dance lessons with her. I  
think she would have been okay with it if it hadn't meant that she'd  
have to sit out for part of the class so he could have a go at it.

There are two humans in this class, both of us with two dogs. As luck  
would have it, the other student has a female about Elsinore's age  
and disposition and a male about Charlie's age and disposition. So we  
put our girls in their travel crates for about ten minutes at a time  
while working with our boys, and then the boys and girls switch places.

Elsinore was very unhappy about being stuck in the crate while  
Charlie tried dancing. This has been "our" thing for a couple of  
years now, and she loves everything about dancing--her enthusiastic  
teacher who thinks she can do no wrong, the mental stimulation of  
trying to figure out what's wanted, the one-on-one positive attention  
she gets from me, and all the treats she earns for doing the steps  
correctly. She's loathe to give up even a minute of her dance class  
to Charlie getting all that. While Charlie danced, she sat in the  
crate and cried and cried and cried. It was heartbreaking. I felt  
horrible.

Young Charlie was very attentive during his dance time. He paid close  
attention to all the instructions and did his very best with each  
step. No tuning me out or mentally leaving his body like he did  
during his pet therapy class, so I guess he feels dancing is fun. His  
best was actually pretty darned good. I've worked with him just a  
little in the past, after practicing with Elsinore, but I always had  
the feeling that he didn't really care one way or the other about  
this dancing stuff. Taking him to this class was sort of a whim, and  
I wasn't expecting him to fully embrace dancing. But in the studio he  
seemed to be very into it. In fact, when it was his turn to sit in  
the crate, he fidgeted and whined.

At the end of our first class, our teacher asked me how I felt it had  
gone with having both dogs in the same class. I told her I thought  
the alternating approach had worked well, but I didn't think I could  
bear to go through another class with Elsinore crying so hard because  
she wasn't getting to dance while Charlie was. Her teacher, who up  
until now has been Elsinore's strongest supporter when it comes to  
dance, suddenly developed a very hard heart. "Oh, she'll get used to  
it," she told me with no concern for Elsinore's emotional well-being  
and immediate happiness. So if Elsinore had thought she'd get any  
sympathy from her teacher, she was pretty wrong.

Our teacher's arguments, which make a lot of sense, are that it will  
do Elsinore good to be reminded that the world doesn't revolve around  
her (it doesn't?). And when I get to the point of taking both dogs to  
competitions or demonstrations (this is thinking really, really  
ahead!), both dogs need to be used to waiting patiently in a crate  
for their turn to dance. Furthermore, our teacher thinks it's not a  
bad thing to have dogs in a crate feeling increasingly eager to get  
out and dance because when they do get out, they have an even  
stronger desire to work and tend to throw themselves into the dance  
even more. Since she trains and competes with least five dogs, I  
guess she knows what she's talking about. But in the meantime, I'm  
feeling guilty pleasure in helping Charlie learn how to dance and  
find his own style on the dance floor, and extreme guilt over not  
dancing every dance with Elsinore, the one who brung me.

It'd be so much easier if Ken would come and learn how to dance, too,  
and then we could both work with a dog. But Ken says ballroom dancing  
lessons with me is plenty for him. He's having enough fun calling  
Elsinore "Dancing Queen" and Charlie "Ballerina Boy" and really  
doesn't want to be slapped with the same labels himself, I guess.

Elizabeth