Shana Weeks 3 to 5 Training for Boston Vacation (Part 3 of Series)

As I write this, the new training dogs coming in have been frequent now, and our business is heating back up for the summer.   This is a really stressful time for Shana at home as always.    Being a dog trainer's dog is not fun for all dogs.   At the same time, we have been working regularly on Shana's impulse control and reactivity around other dogs.   She has been doing really well, but today she has clearly had enough of this.  We are currently in the Middle of Week 6 on a Thursday.  I haven't taken many videos, so I am going to go over what we have been doing to date.

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Here are the things that I neglected to do on Weeks 3 to 5:

• We took zero walks off property.   She was in attendance in her puppy pen when relatives came over, and also when her friend Shannon (our fabulous cleaning lady) was here.  She was also on a few car rides with the window open and her in a seat belt for passive impulse control and socialization (meaning ignoring dogs when we ride by).  Still that is disappointing performance on my part.
• I haven't done my exercising, so Shana has missed out on that training too, which she enjoys very much.  I also have to keep myself healthy to train dogs, as well as exercise Shana (and sometimes train her while we do it).
• Not enough heeling, transitional leash, our outside work fetching

The majority of the exercises we did do are as follows:

• Plenty of behavioral and chill exercises around her friends and the Board and Train puppy.
• Play training with her toys (flirt pole, frisbee, and ratty toy).
• Laundry fetch for toy
• Many many long down stays and long places
• Passive impulse control and socialization as mentioned above
• Close sit or down stays to friends near by, and to less known dogs in crates.  I have seen her progress a lot in this.  Her impulse control to not bully her soft friends from relaxing near her has increased.   (lots of food rewards for Shana not snarking, especially if I see the gears work to stop herself).  I am hoping this will later on travel over to strange dogs walking by on the street.  Shana can be controlled during that, but I want to see her feel relaxed and confident about that before we go on vacation to Boston this fall.

Here are some videos that I did take of progress/work:

If you are training your dogs, it is pretty easy to set up a google calendar specifically for your dog training.   This way, I can pull up the "agenda" and see what we have and have not done.  I just name a different calendar "Shana's Training", pull up the agenda for just that calendar (by eliminating the others) , and then export that first to pdf (no other option from the calendar) and then download that to my computer as an image file like so:

The "nipple milking" is not training, but refers to a bit of a procedure I have to do or check on everyday.   Old lady problems have arisen, since Shana is 10 years old.   I don't want to put her under the knife to have her remaining mammary(s) taken out, since she is older and any medical procedure becomes more dangerous with age.   It is not life threatening to her, so I just do it myself.   Shana does not seem to mind this, which was also a consideration.

The training related items that I notate on Shana's calendar are the exercises, any weaknesses in the exercises, the time taken daily and weekly, and Shana's mood.  I notate Shana's moods as part of the planning on what we are going to do that day.   If she is stressed or irritable, I make sure she has plenty of down time and play time one on one with Robert or myself.  I will also make sure she gets much time off from any of our training guests.  It is really stressful for some dogs to be the pet dogs of dog trainers.   While Shana has a wonderful and active life, she is not a fan of the parade of dogs that come through here, especially the new or lessor known ones.

On that front though, Shana's impulse control and patience has increased during this training, both on the home front and during car rides.   Shana even has come to like Poppy, a Board and Train dog, very much as far as a newer dog goes.   So now we need to start that patience extending to busier public places as well.  I have dropped the ball these weeks with Shana on that.   Not coincidentally, I have let my exercising (jogging, bike riding) slide too.   This is when Shana usually goes off property with me.

Also on Week 4, I over did the exercising and took four days off except for training my client's dogs.   Then on Week 5, Shana seemed achy as well (probably also overdid play), and so we took some days off for Shana, as far as very physical activity went.

I need to take better care of myself and Shana, so that we can get all this training in.   I really want Boston (vacation in Fall) to be as comfortable and fun for Shana as possible.   She has never liked crowds of people or people with dogs.   This is why I am working so hard to try and prepare her.   Now that I have slipped up a couple of weeks, it is time to get back on that horse!