At the beginning of Week 9, I made sure to do a lot of videos.  I hope to string these together someday, to show the progress that is made over time.   Alas, I am a much better dog trainer than "digital creator'.  Perhaps some more practice will make perfect.  We were mostly inside this week, as I had a lot of client dogs over needing to be trained, and I was pooped by 6 pm.   This weekend, we are going to do a lot of "on the road training"m as I have am even busier week coming up next week.  LaLa does help out on occasion by being the distraction in a crate for private lessons.  In day training, she is a moving distraction.

As my dog's performance improves or is at least manageable in less distractions, then I start pushing the distractions a bit at a time.   I want to challenge my dog but not totally overwhelm them.  For me this becomes a judgement call.  I can wait for more perfect performance in non distractions.  I can also increase their performance in non distractions by pushing them a little bit when I am fairly sure they can handle it.  I decide later whether that ended up being a bad idea or a good idea.   With LaLa, it was a good idea as she did better than expected around distractions.  Her biggest distraction is my husband, Robert, moving in and out of her view BTW.  Next biggest distraction would be critters, but they are definitely second place to Robert.

LaLa Training Update:  Last week should have been a full week of LaLa training with me.  However, I was not feeling up to snuff, so we did not get that much training in.  So I am going to count this next week as a continuation of Week 3.  LaLa has been doing well in her training.  

Play training is still a no-go as I try to figure out if I can get LaLa into some interactive play.  I try to get her involved every day, but playing with a toy with some specifically does not seem to be something she is useful.  She does want to hunt critters and fast movements, so I am not giving up.  

One success we had was getting her to start to follow a treat in the hand.  I suspect she was rewarded with treats for sitting mostly, so she was reverting to that (probably thinking that was why the treat was out). It took me a full two weeks plus to start her body in a spin.  Following the hand can be a valuable training tool.