Off to the Coast

Off to Caroline's today! He was happy to see her and transitioned very well. He even sent a post card when he arrived at the coast. Clever boy...

Goodbye for Now

Today is the day Zoltie says goodbye to his friends (at least for now). He's off to Caroline's today for a fun romp in the woods. Although there are not as many dogs to play with, there are all sorts of other adventures that he will have and LOVE. Wish I were a dog so I could be boarded there!

Zoltie is in Heaven! Rosario has arrived...

Boarding is NOT Boring

Zoltie was happy to find out that they don't just put you in a room and throw kibble on the floor for your meals...

July Day Seven -- Night Out on the Town

Can you tell by the smile on his face that he went to a party tonight? Ok, it was really just a small BBQ, but Zoltie was sure it was the most happening place in town.

He met a retired service dog that he really liked. Ketchum was pretty happy to have someone to play ball with. We had been practicing our recalls throughout the day so I knew he was ready for this. He was a ROCK STAR on his recalls this morning, turning on a dime when he was mid run with another dog.

We thought we were all good...until he met the cat. Oh man, that was really exciting. Golden is good at enticing dogs to approach just so he can swat at them. He has no fear when it comes to dogs and he has no hesitation about taking them out when necessary.

This drove Zoltie crazy. He wouldn't get close but he really wanted to. So, instead, he barked. And barked. And barked. And he forgot what his name was or what "come" meant. That gives me real clear feedback on what I need to do.

First of all, because he wasn't responding to me when he was barking like a fool, it was time for a short time-out. Bummer. All these fun things to do and he's stuck with me on leash at the table. Boring. But now, when I do release him, I am going to get him a little farther from the distraction and I'm going to move closer to him so he doesn't have as far to get to me. Now, let's try that again, "Zoltie, come!" See? You do know your name and you know how to do a recall. Good boy! Actually, his recalls were excellent after that. It didn't take me any time at all before I could easily call him to come when he was right next to the cat and really far away from me. That's just the kind of practice we like!

It was a party, of course, so lots of opportunities to show off his greetings. The puppy, Odon, was still learning how to greet people. Zoltie, said, "Oh, I've got this, I know how to do this." Odon, however, jumped up while I was taking pictures and broke my camera. Oops. It's sure nice to have a dog who sits for his greetings.

A couple of people had met Zoltie before (several of these people are my helpers when we are working on greetings with dogs) so we got a lot of compliments on what a nice boy he is and how good he is. Everyone was really impressed with his greetings (good job!!!). And, of course, he's just so super sweet so everyone adores him. He thinks it's pretty keen to have all these people doting all over him.

He's all worn out...again. I keep telling him, it's not going to get any better at Caroline's. He will be just as worn out there as he is here...maybe even more so. Wait until he finds out there is a big giant hose there called a "river." He's not going to know what to do with all that water.

This is our last blog entry for his stay with me. Not to worry though, I'm not going to cut you off cold turkey. I'll try to post a picture or two every couple of days or so. That is, of course, after I get my camera fixed. Hazards of the job...

July Day Six -- Easily Entertained

Zoltie started the day by helping me hose down the deck. Boy, if he's this easy to entertain, he's going to think it's Disneyland at Caroline's.

Our morning entertainment ended with a big smile on Zoltie's wet face. When you find something like this that Zoltie really enjoys, it makes for a great reward when practicing recalls.

His recalls are coming along nicely but he's still a touch slow. But finding something really exciting to him makes him come to me much more quickly. Since he's not always taking treats reliably (really, you don't care for hot dogs???), it's nice to have some other tricks up your sleeve.

Another fun activity for Zoltie that can be used for a reward is Tug. Zoltie loves to tug and we're going to take advantage of that to teach him to bring things back to you and give them up easily in case he gets his little paws on something he shouldn't have.

It's also helpful when he gets a bit distracted. If he knows he's going to be rewarded with something really fun, he's more likely to pay attention.

You can also use those distractions as a reward. Excited about someone new? You can go visit after you come to me. Want to smell the flowers? Well, ok, you can just do that because you are cute.

This picture reminds me a bit of "Horton Hatches the Egg." I can just hear him saying "I meant what I said and I said what I meant, And an Zoltie's faithful, one hundred per cent!" But it really does suit him. He random check ins with me are really strong which is going to make his recalls that much stronger. He is such a good guy!

All in all, just happy. We are all just happy...

July Day Five -- Near By

Zoltie likes to be close. He sleeps under my desk when I'm working. This is all fine and dandy as long as he is getting some alone time and I'm not constantly petting him. Ok, I admit, that last one is hard. But he needs to be comfortable and confident without constantly being in contact with a person.

And most times Zoltie is as happy as can be. His smile is so wide I'd sure his family can see it all the way from the other side of the country.

But he doesn't always like to be left in the crate. Oops...he pulled the kennel tag into the crate and destroyed it. I'm pretty sure he wasn't trying to tell Sinbad that the crate belonged to him now. Luckily all pieces were present and accounted for so no trips to the vet for us. I have to say, he's the first dog I've ever had who was able to pull a kennel tag into the kennel. Tricky boy!

He's doing much better with his downs when there are distractions. We're still building up on his tolerance to the distractions. It's nice that he will be going to Caroline's for the 2nd half of the month as she will be able to provide a whole host of other distractions for him.

We certainly have our share of distractions around here. I think he likes this one...she's not as pointy.

He's also working hard on his drop command. I like to teach this with a toy so I can help him learn how rewarding it is to drop things for me. Not only does he get a treat for drop but he also gets the toy back to play more...what a sweet deal! This will help when he has stolen some fabulous treasure. He'll be much more willing to drop that item for you and give it back. Not to worry, we're working on his recall too so you won't have to chase him down when he runs down the hall with a shoe in his mouth.

July Day Four -- Down With It

Zoltie was so much happier today with very few fireworks going off in the neighborhood. The quiet is so nice (for everyone)!

Zoltie is getting much more compliant in play. He's taking treats well now and he's eager to do recalls or check in with me during play.

We had a play date today and he thought this puppy was dressed pretty strange. He couldn't quite figure out the antennas on the top of his head.

He thought the rest of the dogs was pretty fun though. I like to practice recalls when there is a nice new distraction in the area. This mimics real life a bit more (like when you run into a strange dog when you are out on the town with him).

Recalls are fun and exciting but downs can be kind of boring. When I am teaching stay, I avoid calling the dog out of the stay with a recall because I don't want the dog to anticipate the end of the stay with something really exciting. Instead, I want the dog to really settle into his down. So how do you make it exciting without causing the dog to break the position?

Returning to the dog periodically to reward him will help. I'm still going to use a soft, calm voice but I want to make it very pleasant for him. It needs to really pay off for him to remain in the stay.

It's a balancing act to get him nice and relaxed in his down (note the hip shifted off to the side which is a sign that he has settled into his down) and making it enticing enough that he wants to stay.

The goal being to have a dog who is happy to stay. Zoltie is on his way...

July Day Three -- Happy 4th, or Maybe Not

It's been a bit of a crazy day. Fireworks going off have kind of thrown Zoltie for a loop. He's not doing too bad but he's definitely a little jumpy. We had a visitor today and Zoltie was showing some fear (pacing, jumping backwards, trembling, etc.) and barking at her. These are signs that indicate he may be going into a fear period. These are normal developmental periods for dogs but, occasionally, a fear will "stick" with a dog for life during one of these periods. So we try to keep things pretty low key during these times and avoid taking him to crowded or loud places (not the best timing during the 4th of July). For this fear reaction, we didn't make a big deal about it. We don't want Zoltie to think we are worried too. We let him approach on his own time and it didn't take long before he was going up to greet her with his great big smile.

We tried to get out in the sun early on today before the fireworks started. Soak it up, Zoltie, because we'll be heading inside this evening to an air conditioned house with the TV turned up loud.

We had enough time out in the sun to introduce Zoltie to the new service puppy, Billings.

He was moderately interested in the new puppy...

But he still enjoyed the big kids more. He's getting a bit old to be putting feet on other dogs. The labs are letting him know that's not appropriate any more but this girl is about the same age as he is so she's much more tolerant of this puppy behavior.

As the day rolled on, we preferred working inside (even on such a beautiful day) because of the noises that were starting to occur. It's just as well, it's good for us to break up our routine so Zoltie doesn't start to think that a "stay" only happens when we are outside.

And that way he can cool off on the wood floors whenever it's needed.

We finished up early outside today to avoid the really loud sounds. Zoltie was far less worried inside the house.

He may want to be really close and that is fine. I'm not going to go so far as to not provide comfort for him but I'm also not going to make a really big deal out of it. I'm still going to smile and talk to him the way I normally do and try to make this as easy for him as possible to get through.

Tomorrow will be a much better day and certainly much more quiet.

July Day Two -- Hey You!

Zoltie has a lot of friends here which can be a lot of fun but they can also prove to be quite distracting.

Even though we cleared dogs out of our immediately area, it quickly became clear that they needed to be out of sight and ear shot in order for Zoltie to focus. Downs were really hard when friends were in the same area but not close to us. When he's not complying, I'm going to avoid reaching into my treat bag to get a treat. This just teaches him to wait me out ("I know if I wait long enough she'll finally get a treat out for me."). So now he's working you for those treats and will be very difficult to wean off of those treats later on (I'm sure that's all part of Zoltie's master plan).

In fact, at this point in his training, I am going to frequently take the treats off of me and set them aside. Then when I reward him, I can walk over and get the treats so he's not learning to only do things when he knows I have treats on me.

That also ensures that I am rewarding him, not bribing him...

So, if he's not complying, it's on me to look around and figure out why he's having a hard time complying. Does he not know the command? Maybe he doesn't know it in this context? Or is there too much activity around him? When he's struggling so much, I quickly looked around and thought it might be the distractions. I took him inside to a quiet room and he preformed his downs beautifully. That gives me the information I need to go forward. I could easily work on his stays in the quiet room but now I see I also need to work with him on downs in distracting environments.

But I am definitely not going to start out in a high distraction environment and expect success. We'll start out a little slower and work our way up.

We're going to do the same with his recalls. We'll start out easy and work our way up.

And now that he is a little more happy about his treats, it will be much easier to get that really happy response from him.

In the meantime, I'll continue to rewards random check ins so he remembers to keep an eye on me when exciting things are happening.

And we'll play a lot to keep it fun and exciting. Nice stress reliever too...

And we will certainly try to keep cute girls like Thistle out of sight while he's practicing. He's got a bit of a crush on her. If only he knew she was retired a few months ago and had her baby maker removed. Besides, that's a bit like Mrs. Robinson...she's Rosario's mom after all.