Leaving my campsite at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park around 8:00 am and taking a couple wrong turns, I arrived in Kanab around 8:45 for the Wave lottery. This lottery was for Saturday - Monday as the office is closed over the weekend, so I had 30 chances of having my name drawn. Unfortunately, there were over 150 people vying for the spots with 59 applications. My name was again not drawn, although the number right next to mine was drawn, which had happened last time as well! I headed out to quickly check emails and texts before going to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary for what I thought was a 10:00 am tour. As I began to drive out of town, a yellow lab suddenly appeared in front of my car, I was able to see her in time to avoid her without much trouble, but quickly pulled over to see if I could catch her. I watched as she ran, criss-crossing all over the road, terrified as cars swerved around her and honked. As I started walking towards her, she bolted in the opposite direction, hackles all along her spine up in fear, her body low to the ground, tail tucked in close to her body. I quickly grabbed Luna in hopes of enticing the lab with another dog and went across the road as she disappeared. I found her in someone’s front yard and the sight of Luna kept her from running. I knelt down, speaking gently and excitedly to her and out of curiosity, she came close enough for me to get ahold of the collar she wore. I quickly tightened the collar that was loose enough for her to easily squirm out of, then tried to walk forward, she was not going anywhere, so I took Luna’s leash off and put it on her to have something more to grip, relying on Luna’s obedience to voice commands with all the cars around. The house that I had found the dog at appeared to be under some kind of construction with no one living there and the neighbour, arriving home as I caught the dog told me he did not know her, so I was certain I was not taking her from her home, no dog as panicked as she was in the middle of the road would be that close to home. She pulled powerfully sideways on the leash trying to distance herself from me, but jumped willingly in the car when asked. Uncertain if there was any kind of dog pound around, I decided to continue my drive to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and see what I should do with her. Luna was not impressed with her presence in the car, coming up to growl in her face as soon as she entered, but responded sulkily to my request for her to “go lie down”. I stroked and talked to the dog as we drove and she relaxed, putting her paw on my arm for more pets whenever she felt that was needed. I took only her in to the Welcome Centre (much to Luna’s chagrin), or rather, she took me in to the Welcome Centre (she pulled, a lot!) and I explained the situation to the person at the desk. As she went to get someone else to help, I decided to test the dog “sit” I told her and she looked at me and sat, then placed her paw on my leg to get a head massage. I saw her teeth were beautifully white, particularly for a dog of her age, likely she was around 5-7 years old, so someone loved her, despite her not having any tags to show for it, only a faded purple colour adorned with a pattern of flowers. The woman returned with another lady that asked us to wait outside (likely as they had a cat in the room and the dog was unknown) while they phoned animal control. We waited, her sitting patiently once she’d pulled me outside. The second woman came outside a few minutes later with a map to the police department and telling me that they would be ready and waiting for the dog, I thanked her and she squeezed my shoulder gently as she thanked me for stopping to ‘save the dog’. It was just after 10:00 and it turned out that the demo started at 10:30, so I had just enough time to take the dog back to town and return for the clinic. In town, I found the police department and went in tentatively, uncertain if I should have a dog in there, the woman behind the glass told me it was fine and asked me a few questions about where I found the dog, then I sat and waited for the officer to finish a call and come out. Once the officer arrived it went quickly, he again asked where I found the dog, took her from me and had her jump in his vehicle, then gave me back my leash and that was that. She was a lovely dog, I hope she is back with her people now.
I quickly drove back to the sanctuary and arrived just as the demonstration began. The trainer began by showing some of the horse, Felix’s, moves. To warm him up, with no halter or rope, she sent him around the arena over some slightly raised poles in both directions, he was so focused on her the whole time and returned to her as soon as she invited him in. She then took her stick and string (a nicer term for whip and she certainly didn’t use it as a whip), and went all around him hitting the ground on either side of him with it, over his head and from behind him, he stood still and relaxed. She then placed the string around his hind legs and he backed up with slight pressure on the string, she did the same with the string around his flank area, having him move to the side. She gave him some subtle cue and he spun from a stand still, bolting off and loading himself on to the small, two-horse straight haul trailer, then walking off and backing himself in while the trainer still stood at the other side of the arena giving small cues. He also placed his front hooves on a platform, stood on a platform and backed his hind feet on to the platform. The trainer then explained how this horse had been the most fearful horse the sanctuary had received in the 17 years she had worked there, even touching the whip to the ground with her back turned to him made him bolt around in fear and even flip over in panic. For the first 6 months, no progress was made as she kept releasing pressure when he panicked, of course reinforcing the terrified behaviours. After changing her approach and risking herself in the round pen with him loose so that she could better continue her work without having to hold him back from lunging away from her, she made almost immediate progress with him and since has gotten to the point where they are today where he was so attentive, calm and happy, even with a crowd of people all focused on him and people with loud machines repairing fences nearby. On her second ride with him a tarp had blown up and started sailing over them, while she expected to be done for, he stood calmly, waiting for direction. 
Not very visible with my iPhone camera through a dirty case, but Felix is in the trailer, looking at the trainer for direction.
After the demo, I headed over to enjoy another lunch, which was the same salad idea along with breaded tofu (it was flavoured very nicely) and some kind of chocolate creampuff dessert. We then headed back to town and I again stopped at the McDonald’s parking lot to decide where to go next. I had places both NE and SW from me that I wanted to see, all around an hour away, so I was torn as to where to go first. I quite suddenly decided to go to a Motel 6 in Page, Arizona, phoning them up and making a reservation before I could change my mind. I was starting to get in desperate need for laundry facilities as I was running out of some essential clothing items. I also wanted to get up to date on my blog and start getting my online things in order to send to my accountant for taxes, I had dropped off all my papers before I left, but hadn’t gotten around to what I had online.
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