Tervuren in the Mist

On a clear day, you can see forever.

On a misty day, you can expect your vision to be clouded.

When I took Dreamer to class this morning, I wasn't sure if the rain was going to hold off. It was misting slightly, and I didn't want to go. I called Karen, and she said she'd be willing to show up if I wanted to work in the mist. I didn't really want to, as it was also chilly and windy, but I knew it would be best to get our lesson in.

We first worked on heeling and Dreamer's lack of attention. It is hard to get her to look at me for more than one step. She likes to multi-task. We've been working on "looks" for quite some time, and I just get tired of it. I know it's important, though, and we cannot rush through this. Today, we started with one step, look, and treat. Then we moved to 2 steps, with a quick pop up if Dreamer looked away. We then moved up to 3 steps. By the time we finished that little exercise, Dreamer was filled to the brim with treats...and she ate breakfast this morning...so she was stuffed and less motivated to work for food.

We worked on the box next, which is fun. Dreamer LOVES her box. I send her to her box, made out of PVC pipe, to get a treat. Then she turns around inside the box, facing me, and stands. I reward her with a treat. Today, we added a sit. Dreamer excels at the box. The work we're doing inside the box is going to make hand signals that much easier.

We did a few other things and then ended with downs. I am so freakin' tired of downs! We're at the same point with downs that we once were with sits. Dreamer is inching forward instead of folding back, and I've had a heck of a time fixing that. I didn't want to work on downs today, but I'm glad we did. It was necessary. Karen played a game with Dreamer to get her head back in the game and started grabbing at her collar to tug her back into the correct folding position. When it was my turn to try, I thought I was doing what Karen was doing, but my movements were way off. Dreamer thought I was grabbing at her and didn't like it, so Karen started playing a "tug the collar" game with Dreamer to get her happy and get her mind off the tugging as a bad thing. I think I was caught up in making the correction quickly instead of correctly, and Karen said that being quick wasn't necessary. I think I have the tools now to work with Dreamer on downs and fix this stupid problem. Ugh. It was a painful but productive session.

And now we're off the hook for 3 weeks due to the National and a show conflict for Karen. Hopefully we will be able to make some progress in that amount of time...and hopefully we'll have some clear skies and results to match.

Working Weekend

Pilot worked hard this weekend. On Saturday, at the Saginaw Valley Kennel Club show, he was in high gear with all the distractions. In the last month, Pilot has made great gains in loose leash walking around people. He still has a hard time ignoring food, wrappers, etc. on the floor. Add to all that thousands of dogs and smells of a dog show and Pilot was in overdrive. We stayed at the show for over 4 hours and during the entire time I would say that he successfully maintained a loose leash for a total of 30 seconds while heeling. He did much better on sit and down stays. He barked only once early in the morning while watching a GSD gait about the ring. He must have thought she was hot:) I had my lemon juice handy and got a well-timed correction in. After that, I never needed it again. In less crowded areas, we worked on passing other dogs, kids on a blanket, etc. We also got practice using stairs with an unusual surface. The first time up and down, he was unable to maintain step-by-step control. By the 3rd time, it was pretty much a piece of cake except for the last step. He still jumps off the last step: it's on our "keep trying" list.
I found that when he was in very tight situations, he was able to maintain more control if he was standing or seated. He just isn't at the point where he can leave other dogs alone while he is moving. One more item for our list.
Sunday was an even better day. We went to the Great Lakes Loons Opening Day Parade in downtown Midland. The Loons are our local minor league team. Pilot and I got a lot of practice walking among the crowds before the parade started. I even took him in the street to walk past the people lined up on the curbs. This was his first look at balloons attached to strollers. He held almost every meet and greet even with young children. A month ago he couldn't hold a meet and greet with Debbie or Barb!
When the parade started, he blew me away. He sat very erect and watched every single thing that went by with much interest but great control. Nothing bothered him: the sirens, music, vehicles, bagpipers, camel in a Loon's cap, miniature horses. There were people walking by throwing candy for the kids and I asked a few of them to throw one piece toward Pilot. He even handled that pretty well. A month ago, he would have dove for it while ripping my arms out of my sockets. Today, the "leave it" command and slight tightening of his martingale were all that he needed as he craned his head downward to look.
After the parade, he was hysterical. He kept wanting to bolt instead of heel. It was as if he had said, "I have given you every last ounce of self-control and now I want to run!" I had planned to take him for a walk anyway, so off we went. He was doing well until we came to the "tridge". It's a 3 way wooden bridge with open slats on the sides. Underneath, 2 rivers meet and flow. Pilot was a bit freaked the way he is when we work on fire escape stairs. He might be afraid of heights? Anyway, we were on the way down toward a park when kids on skateboards came flying past. That did it. More bolting. At the foot of the bridge he was further freaked by the flagpole which was clanging. I finally got him settled down by just standing there until he was calm enough to accept a treat. Then we approached the bridge again. He was breathing hard and trying to pull, so we did a lot of backing up. When I got him to the top, I sat on a bench and let him chill out under my seat as I talked with a lady who was curious about the training. She was shocked when he finally settled down enough to stick his head through the slats and look at the water below. I explained that I always use this method to desensitize Pilot to "scary things". It's one of Caesar Milan's methods and it is a good one. Sure enough, on the way down the bridge, he was fine.
We then went for an absolutely wonderful 2 mile walk on the rail trail where he excelled at loose leash walking. He balked a few times when scary runners ran past, but otherwise he was terrific even when cyclists flew past.
On the way home, we stopped by the library. I've been taking him there every month. This trip was amazing. He never pulled once - he walked in quietly, stood by my side as I picked out a book, and lay at my feet as I checked out.
If I can get him past his reactivity with other dogs, this boy and I are going to have some real fun the next 6 months together. I love my Pilot:)