Moving On

It's hard to believe that I haven't made an entry in so long. Pilot has made tremendous progress and now that little Seeker has joined us, I hope with all my might that he fulfills his destiny to become a Leader Dog.

Seeker: her name fits her. She seeks out mischief and fun. She seeks to learn. She is always striving to do her best. It will be a challenge to keep her mind busy and content. She was 9 weeks old this week and she knows:

sit, down, here, touch, paws up, spin, leave it, take it (retrieving), get it (treat off a target), watch me, and is starting to learn come and wait. She's working on loose leash walking. She's starting to get the idea of housebreaking as we use the commands, "Let's go outside" and "go potty". She's only had one accident.

She's a she-devil to Pilot as she taunts him and bites him. He is quite tolerant.

She plays happily with her toys in her crate or ex-pen most of the time until she falls asleep.

I'm a LUCKY PERSON!

Even More Progress

Pilot and I met with Karen and Kenzie to train yesterday. We went to the Tridge which is the bridge that Pilot feared in the past. I could tell that he was a bit nervous, but he quickly recovered and we journeyed across with no problems. I had Karen swing a child's swing over his head and even though he jerked his head on the first pass, he held his sit next to me and again, quickly recovered. We walked the dogs past each other and Pilot was not reactive to Kenzie while under command. He still tries to lunge to play with her when he is not under command.
We let them play in the dog park which was empty. It was so funny. It's probably an acre in size and they never left us. They ran and played within 10 feet of us. So cute! When it came time to put their leashes back on, Kenzie did not respond to her recall command, but Pilot came flying to me:)
We took Kenzie for a ride in my car because she has been having some fear problems with vehicles other than her own. No problems there.
Pilot and I then went to Lowe's to pick up a few flats of flowers. He got a ton of compliments and was perfect except for the very end when out of the blue, he goosed the lady waiting ahead of us in line...oh my! Luckily, she was very nice about it.
At home, Pilot was getting close to the flags in the yard as he was looking for a place to "park". I said, "leave it" and he whipped his head around and came racing back toward me. I'm so glad I decided to train him to the fence:)
Last night Karen sent me an e-mail that said that if I turned Pilot in today, he would be better than 3/4 of the dogs going back to school. That made my day.

Alien Invasion

I'm beginning to wonder if aliens swooped in and took Pilot away leaving a well mannered Future Leader Dog in his place. Yesterday we went to church, a nursery, a small market, and a large grocery store. Pilot was unbelievably good at each stop. People were coming up to me and saying what a wonderful dog he is! That is just music to my ears. My baby is finally growing up. As much as I love him and would love to keep him, I know that truly I want him to meet his destiny to become a blind person's "Pilot".
We are meeting Karen and Kenzie and Ann and Summer to train today. It will be interesting to see if my new little man remains on track or reverts back to his old tricks.

Gettin' Down without Karen

The last time I blogged, Dreamer and I were down with Karen.

A week later, we are down without Karen. Her technique for the proper folding down worked like a charm in person, but I've had great difficulty replicating that technique at home...so I've stopped. I'm working on other exercises with Dreamer that involve the down, so I'm hoping that something clicks over the next few weeks when we mix and match the down with other things. Here are the things we are working on:

• From the sit position: Stand to down
• From the down position: Sit (or really, a slight stand to a sit)

I'm sure these are basic baby steps leading into the utility exercises, but they don't seem very challenging. So my focus is on the hope that Dreamer finally understands the perfect way to fold by the time we're done with all of these pieces. Otherwise, I'm going to be down, period.

Fence Freedom

Pilot and I are enjoying his new off lead freedom due to the electronic fence. He is such a magnet dog that I will be shocked if the fence doesn't work for him.

During our training session today, I started with the collar off. I put a towel down on the driveway and told Pilot that he was "safe" as we stepped on the towel together to exit the driveway. The driveway is always the hardest part to teach the dog. Our Invisible Fence guy told me to put the dog in the car and drive out of the driveway to go for a walk. I think this is a stupid method. My sister-in-law uses an electronic fence and her guy told her to use a towel in the above manner. It makes way more sense to me. The dog learns that he can only cross the driveway if the towel is there. Easily accomplished.

We took a long walk/run in a new neighborhood and I was so proud of Pilot! He walks so well in perfect lead-out heel position with no pulling. I just love it. When we run, he runs on the gravel shoulder and doesn't pull. It's so very pleasant. Today on our walk, a stray dog wanted to come up to us. I instructed Pilot to "leave it" and I yelled at the other dog to stay away. Worked like a charm.

When we got home, I gave Pilot a drink and put on his electronic fence collar. We walked the perimeter of the yard as I touched flags and told him to "leave it". I then started playing with him. We did some fun retrieves and then his favorite game of all "chase me". I purposely got him all riled up and then ran past the fence line. He came flying and I said, "leave it" but he just kept coming and broke through the fence. The correction startled him and I told him to sit which he did. What a good boy! I then took off the collar and held on to his buckle collar as we quietly walked back into the yard. Here again, I disagree with the fence guy. His method is to let the dog get another correction coming back into the yard. I think not! The dog is doing the right thing by being with you under control.

We played some more in the yard and this time he was much more cautious about going near the flags.

This afternoon, we had another session and it went great. He loves being able to run and retrieve without having a flexi on or a long line dragging. So do I.

Again, the plan is to never let him in the yard without us being right there with him. I'm not that much of a rebel:)

Night and Day

Pilot made a huge turn-around today in his behavior. Last night at the Loons game, Karen had a squirt gun that she used to control her FLD. She also shot Pilot in the face with it when he tried to approach her dog, Kenzie. It hit me that I could use my small spray bottle to solve his exuberant rushes toward people or other dogs. I planned to take it to my classes tonight.

In the meantime, I decided to break another Leader Dog rule and began training Pilot to our invisible fence. I put him on a long line, and set up all the white flags around the yard. I put the collar on him and proceeded to walk him around the yard pointing out all the flags and using the "leave it" command. He learned fast!

I'm not sure if he now associates the words, "leave it" with the electronic collar, but he was way more responsive at class tonight. I was able to walk him by other dogs and he behaved so well! My students couldn't believe the change in him and neither could I. It was the difference between night and day! When he started to clown around by trying to jump on me for attention or bite his bridle snap, I just used the spray bottle. Unbelievable success. Night and day from Mr. Loony.

This boy is going to be a Leader Dog! And if not, at least he'll be trained to our fence and be well on his way to his OTCH:)

Loony at the Loons Game

Pilot started my day at 5 a.m. with gagging sounds that soon produced bile and a stick about 3 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. He is such an intelligent boy but he sure has no street smarts!

After my tennis match, I had no energy to take him for a walk. I opted for a nap instead followed by some play in the yard. I hoped that retrieving the tennis ball would take the edge off, but apparently not...

We met the other Future Leader Dog puppy raisers at the local minor league baseball game. The "Loons" won big: 9-1. That was about the same score I would give Pilot for his behavior. Except he gets the loser's score! While all the other dogs lay quietly on their blankets (we were on the grassy knoll), Pilot was on the move 90% of the time; always stalking his next big move to get to another dog. On the other hand, he never chased after children running by. That was huge!

As I analyzed the night, I realized that he has gone from constantly lunging at other dogs to rarely doing so while heeling or on a sit in heel position. His next big hurdle is to stay under control while he is "settling" on a down. All the other puppy raisers say it will happen. I look forward to the day when my goony loony becomes a content young adult with enough self control to watch the world go by....