One of Those Days

So every day will not be filled with victories and roses. Today was one of those days. Lazarus is continuing to be afraid of Shannon and this greatly stresses me out. I know they only see each other a few hours a day but Shannon loves Lazarus and Lazarus is fearful of Shannon. Shannon is kind of an imposing figure and moves much quicker than I do and has a louder deeper voice than I. Lazarus seemed a little unsure of me today too, spending much of the day watching me over the arm of the chair. I am trying to find the balance between encouraging him while not coddling him, training him to do commands without pushing him to hard. Mastering the “Sit” command proves elusive.  He did find his voice today.  We’d been told he’d been “trained” not to bark (trained is to be translated as having the bark beat out of him – insert tear drops here) but he barked today which is sort of a victory that he feels safe enough to bark. For the record he has a smokers bark, sort of hoarse and squeaky at the same time. He barked at a lady walking down the street, barked at the mailman across the street, barked at Shannon – which stressed me out again. Shannon is my rock, he talks me down from the ledges, believes in me and my mission to help pit bulls and repair their tarnished reputation. Yet, the one who needs Shannon the most right now is frightened of him. How long can I expect my rock to stay strong? We need a breakthrough. I know raising Lazarus will involve hard work, setbacks as well as victories and it will be stressful too. I just need help maintaining focus, perspective and momentum. Some days are much harder than others; this is one of those days.