Look who's back! It's great to have Mollie back here. We took some time last night getting acquainted to everyone and reconnecting a bit. It's not unusual for dogs, when they get into a new environment with new distractions, to need a little bit of time to check in. At this point, I'm not even going to try recalls or name recognition. There is too much "new" coming at her. But it doesn't take her long and it's clear she's ready to work.
She spent some time getting to know new and old friends. Some are here for only a short while and the others, well, she knows them all too well. They are permanent residences here and they are always available to provide distractions for me when we get to that point in our training. With loose leash walking, we'll start out with no one around so she can really focus (more on that tomorrow).
Rosario is one of Mollie's new friends. She'll be here for most of the time when Mollie is here. She's a 7 month old puppy in training for service work. Mollie thinks she's pretty keen.
And based on that gleam in Rosario's eyes, I suspect she has great plans while Mollie is here. Perhaps she will be our best distraction.
As always, we like to use play a lot in our training. It keeps the dogs engaged and provides a good stress reliever in between training sessions. It also helps us get some of the energy out so she can be a little more focused when we are working on skills.
Mollie had a good time waving toys underneath the noses of other dogs and running off. Some of her darting behavior made me question whether she was being too possessive of the toy but a couple of sessions of "drop" showed me that she was willing to give it up even with other dogs around. That's a good sign that all is going well.
And then there's the fact that she had an extremely cute way of trying to get the toy from Rosario. Oh Mollie, we really missed you!
And, of course, play time is an excellent time to practice recalls. We can build a really strong recall by calling her, paying her off big for coming, and releasing her to go play again. This helps teach her that coming when called does not mean that all fun is going to end.
Recalls also help her to stay checked in with her people. No worries there, this photo is taken from her view when she is sitting on my lap. It's so nice to have a dog that, even when there are fun dogs to play with, still want to spend time with people.
We're working hard on sitting for greetings. This can be a challenge for her because she's such a joyful girl and loves to jump up to get attention from people. When she learns that she only gets good things (attention, praise, treats, toys, etc.) when she sits, she's more likely to repeat that behavior.
Even when there are other distractions nearby...distractions who might possibly get attention too (oh so hard for her!).
We'll brush up on her manners though, and that will help with her jumping too. In order for her to get things she wants, like going through a door, getting her leash on, putting the food or water bowl down, going out to play, getting in the car, etc, she needs to sit. At first I'll cue her to sit but after just a short amount of time, I'm just going to wait her out and wait for her to figure out that she needs to sit to get what she wants.
Believe it or not, they all sat for this water bowl. You would think it was the only bowl of water I have out for them. Apparently it tastes better with all that other dog spit in it.
More tomorrow. We're hoping it's not going to rain. We'll try to get our posts out earlier but these pups keep me on my toes until the bitter end. That's ok, I thoroughly love being on my toes.
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