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.

This week, LaLa had a lot of both canine and human company around her in the house.   So far, she is absolutely turn key with the human company.   She just wants to snuggle with them or enthusiastically greet them.  My brother in law came for a visit, and our cleaning person is also a favorite of LaLa's.

She likes other dogs, but he it takes her a day or two to get to know them and not be so forward with them.   Once she feels comfortable with them, she is great.  I don't let her play with everyone, because she can be a bit much (even with us) in that regard.  LaLa just keeps getting better and better as time goes on.

LaLa and I have just about completed our 7th week training.   She is remarkably well behaved on leash.

Off leash, she is more than just a little critter obsessed as you can see by the photo to your left.  After that photo, I had to work on getting her back into the house by luring with food and having her work for a bit on obedience.  LaLa clearly has the terrier gene hard wired in her.   I know where critters are in the walls of my house (or were maybe).  The critters under the deck clearly don't have the good sense to move their home.  Our previous girl, Shana, was prey driven too, but not as much as LaLa, but then again she had at least 9 years of training under her belt and being diverted to other activities.   

I am working with LaLa on making other activities as interesting as hunting critters.    I am also trying to find a way to make that a motivating factor.   We got 5 minute games of interactive play this week with poor Lamby toy (the only toy she will play a little tug with me with some prolonged enthusiasm.

​There is something so basic in dog training that I often forget to communicate to my human clients. It ends up being important what you wear to train your dog or puppy. I typically have a basic dress code everyday even with seasoned and trained dogs.  A lot of my work requires me being able to get dirty and play with the dogs in different environments as the training progresses.  This could be in the woods around wetlands or on a mountain trail.

I have separate clothes for dog training, so I don’t ruin my non-dog training clothes.  Do not wear your favorite (dry clean only or hand wash only) clothes while training dogs. Some of this advice may be over the top for just a dog owner trainer, nevertheless, I think they are great tips to keep in mind for either the professional trainer or dog owner:

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.