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:)

Strong and Silent

Pilot played the strong and silent type today on our outings. I don't want to jinx us, but the lemon shots must be working. First, we visited a tennis facility where one of my former players was playing a college tennis match. Pilot was wiggly, but silent. There were cupcakes on a low table: one for each of the girls on the team. Pilot faked like he was stretching to get nearer to the table. One of the moms laughed and said if he ate one, it had better be Katie's (the girl I was there to see).
From the match, we visited the mall for a walk in the crowds. Each time we do this, I am amazed at his progress. He now walks on a loose leash unless we are near the food court area where we continue to work on the "leave it" command.
I stopped and sat twice to test his down "settles" and his control over his voice. He's still wiggly, but he was quiet.
Our next stop was to Pet Smart. Walking the aisles while tempted with toys, treats, and food is just overwhelming for Pilot. While I was working in one aisle, I overheard two workers commenting that Pilot is a handful for his age. I'm sure they thought he was a year old or more. When I got nearer and started working closer to one of them, she asked how old he was. I loved the look on her face when I said he was 6 months old:)
He finally settled down and I did some sits and downs near the doorway.
Our last stop was Starbuck's. I ordered a drink and sat at a table. He was a little wiggly at my feet, but I'm celebrating that he was quiet at last.
I'm proud of my strong, silent baby boy.

The Realization

I am showing my dog in one week.

Eeeeek!

I'm A Man

I met John and Jess at our Essexville house and we let Maizie and Pilot play in the backyard. Then we took them for a mile and 1/2 walk. I was hoping that Pilot would be tired enough to behave at the high school musical, Annie. Daddy Warbucks was played by one of my tennis players and several other tennis players were in the cast.
I had saved Pilot's dinner to hand feed him while we watched, but that was a mistake. He was nosing my hands and wiggling around. Then I put him on a down at my feet to chew on several stuffed Kongs. That worked for awhile until the occasional barks started. They just come out of the blue. They are isolated: only one at a time, but they are embarrassing!! I wasn't too upset though because it was free senior citizen night and half of the audience is deaf. The first half lasted almost 2 hours and about 20 minutes from the end, Pilot fell asleep. At intermission, I debated over whether to put him in the car after pottying him, or try to get him through the whole thing. I decided on the latter. While I took him out to potty, several people complimented him on his great job as Sandy! I don't know if you remember, but the director wanted to cast Pilot as Sandy, but I told him that Pilot was too young. I steered him to the Davis' who are puppy raising Summer, an 8 month old Leader Dog pup. She did do a great job! Pilot, however, took all the credit at the intermission. I did run into the director who knew the barking was from Pilot, but he just laughed about it. In the second act, Pilot was doing well, but out of the blue, let out a huge bark. From there it was all downhill. He just squirmed and backed away from me. I quietly took him out to the car. After the show, Ann Davis told me that people were surprised that Summer was barking!
Just like a man...Pilot took all the credit and passed all the blame off to a woman!

I'm Not Lion

No lying, Pilot was not very good at the Lion's Club meeting. We got there early and he pooped and peed which was good. But he tried to jump on Karen and Ron Sharp, also puppy raisers. But they knew to immediately turn their backs on him and he immediately responded by settling down and letting them approach to pet him. Their Smooth Collie, Kenzie could not attend because she broke her leg roughhousing in their back yard! By the end of the night, they were probably wishing they had brought their dog, cast and all!
Pilot was not on his best behavior. He barked a few times before dinner started and I finally got him under the table with his bribes (stuffed Kongs). When we stood to say the pledge, he popped out, hitting his head in the process and making a loud boom! Oh brother!
I got him back under the table and gave him a real bribe: a bully stick. That was all he needed. He was perfect for the rest of the dinner.
I had to take it away as we went to the front of the room to present the program. The program lasted way too long for Pilot (I want to say it was 40 minutes long!!!) Well, Pilot could not keep his mouth shut. Fortunately, the Lions thought he was so cute and didn't care. I tried everything: giving him the quiet command, having him do puppy push-ups, heeling him around, having him settle as I gave him paw massages. Each thing worked for a few minutes and then he would go back to voicing his opinion that he had had enough and wanted to go home!
I finally decided to go back to the table, give him the bully stick back, and let him go back under the table to chill. That was my best idea of the night.
When I took the stick away for pictures, he was not a happy camper. I'm surprised the pictures turned out as well as they did!
Why was raising a Leader Dog on my bucket list?

A New Season

Despite Dreamer coming into season earlier this week, I decided I'd take her to her obedience lesson today and just see how it went. I haven't noticed a huge change in her personality at home. She's a bit clingy, but it's not troublesome and doesn't get in the way of what I ask her to do.

When we got to class and Karen wasn't there yet, I was a little worried. She's not a morning person, and I wondered if she had remembered to Spring Ahead. She called me about 5 minutes after our lesson was supposed to start and said she'd be right there. She lives across the street from where we train, so it wasn't a long wait.

Dreamer and I played with her Wing-a-ball while awaiting Karen's arrival and did a few sit-waits. There was a baseball game going on nearby, so the crack of the bat and children screaming were two very good distractions. Dreamer's waits were solid. I was so proud of her.

Once Karen arrived, we worked on some heeling and then moved on to Figure 8s. We touched on those at our last lesson but really troubleshooted them today. Karen works everything in pieces, which drives me insane, but she always has a good reason. We worked on a "back" motion when Dreamer is rounding the post on my inside, and then a "hurry" motion when she's rounding the opposite post on my outside. She's got the "back" motion down but not the "hurry," so we broke it down. I was really very happy and surprised by her willingness (and 100% ability) to work through being in season. I wasn't sure what I was going to get today.

Dreamer did have a few issues during the sit-wait while I was headed to the end of the Flexi for a recall. She wanted to clean herself, and I had to put her back in position a few times. Poor baby girl. She was the first lesson of the day, so I hope she didn't leave a lot of distracting smells for the boys who came after her.

The sweet and loving male GSD that has a lesson after us wanted to greet Dreamer today and is neutered, but his owner had other plans. She wanted to introduce somebody new to Karen. I put Dreamer in her crate and started writing my check out to Karen when I had to stop everything because of an adorable 8-week-old black GSD baby girl. SO ADORABLE! I had flashbacks to when I met Karen during Panda's lesson and introduced her to Dreamer at that age. That little bear cub face also made me think of you and the bear cubs yet to come. It's a new season, and I am so ready for it!