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Hi and Welcome!
It sounds like Dolly has been making good progress in your home. To answer your question about what you should do when Dolly wants to run away and hide the answer is this:
right now the best choice may be to let her hide.Attempting to keep her from hiding depends on your relationship with her and her ability to be distracted in the situation. You definitely do NOT want to force her to stay in a room, if she would be panicked or coddle her (as you mentioned this makes things worse by sending the message that you worried too , since they are focused on tone of voice not words) . If you would be able to distract her with high value treats to do some obedience (not sure if you were using treats when you tried distracting her with obedience), a high value chew (like a bully stick, stuffed kong) or her favorite toy, or keep her on a leash with you without her panicking, these might be options to work with now.
If not allow her to hide for now, and as you progress working on the layers of the pyramid and the phases of training you should eventually be able to do one of the above mentioned options. And eventually send her to a “Place” command in this type of situation. Don’t rush things if she is not comfortable enough/ far along enough in her obedience to accomplish this.As for spitting in a dog’s water bowl or food- I’m not sure it would help you accomplish much in the leadership department. We have always had great success here at K9-1 without the need to spit into a dog’s dish. Follow the steps outlined in layer 5 of the Triangle and your dog will have a clear picture of where leadership lies, ( no loogies necessary 🙂 )
