Have I spoiled Shana? In some ways, I have definitely spoiled Shana. Shana is a hard worker and a good dog, but some of that spoiling is what holds her back now from being relaxed in a city like Boston. I had really never thought we would take a Boston trip in Shana's lifetime. The fall vacation is far enough away, that all I need to do is prepare her. |
There have been infrequent trips to Portsmouth, which Shana does well on but she is anxious. So now I want to build more comfort in those types of settings where we may have to pass a dog closely (or even some person with strange energy for a dog). Obviously, there is also management that will be used for this. I really want Shana to enjoy this vacation as much as we do (or close to it).
So I am going to include some videos of the start of our training in this blog now. This way, I can see the improvements we have made. Already, there are improvements in her bossy demand barking, her obedience, and her trust in me that I have things handled. The last one is the one that needs more work, being that Shana will be more than happy to step in if she things I am lacking.
Out of sight down stay helps impulse control among other things (this is something we have not worked on in a long while):
- Two jogs off property on transitional leash for transitional leash behavioral work and loosening up her leashed area
- One jog on property for practicing let's go around her friends and toys
- Many 10 min in a row downs ranging from 10 min to 30 min or from D to A+ performance (particularly at the end of the week)
- A couple of times sits out of motion and downs out of motion in the yard (also inside but I didn't log that) with friends and toys around
- So much frisbee working on quiet, out, leave it, and where (find it). Much of the demand barking has stopped, as well as giving up the frisbee when asked.
- A couple times of tug play training focusing on get it, out, fetch, retrieve, quiet and so forth. Work in progress LOL. She gets very excited for this toy.
- Working on tricks a couple of times weave, circle, safety, through, spin, over, touch, hug, kiss, go back,
- Food rewards for quiet and fetching toys for friends play (part of one of her dogs)
- Fetch food bowls from upstairs or downstairs to be put away for food reward
- Consistent practice of sits and downs first command
- One Novice run through (heel, turns, auto sit, figure eight, stand , sit stay, down stay, recall) in the yard off equipment and around friends. Actually very nice, though she was getting tug rewards between each exercise.
- At least two long places which she did break at least once and more during the 30 minutes
- Two sits on the dogs with friends, first one took her 5 ,min to go down with Reggie around. Second one lots of barking and bullying with Cujo and Bandit around, but she went right down.
- No barking in car on a couple of off Town adventures! Very relaxed and sleeping at times where she would have been up and barking.
- One very long (2 hours) walk to Ellis Park in York Maine on dirt and busy roads. We saw many active people and leashed dogs from a closer distance. Shana did very well, although she was very suspicious of a young Golden Retriever who was clearly admiring her from afar. Also a was going to react (I stopped it) to a large Boxer who did not even look her way. At the quiet time at Ellis Park (1/2 hour) I played lots of food games with her so she could begin to relax even with all sorts of dogs being walked around on leash.
So am I done with Shana's training? No, nothing has been made habitual yet. However, I am very pleased with the progress, and I expect the Boston experience is going to be much less scary for her. I will be working right up to that point. Stay tuned!