August 2012 -- Day Twenty Two

Oh Mollie, what a good girl she is. She tries really hard. Sometimes she makes mistakes but she gets it right way more than she messes up.

She's still of the age where she needs to be monitored in the house. She's not naughty but occasionally she just wants to try something...like maybe checking out what is on the table. If I'm there to interrupt that behavior, she doesn't get rewarded for it. If I didn't catch her searching for something on the table top, that behavior gets reinforced. Not good. But just by consistently interrupting the behavior, she's going to learn that it doesn't pay off for her to behave that way. She'll get a lot more praise and interactions with you when she behaves nicely.

It's not difficult to monitor her. She's pretty well connected to her people and sticks pretty close.

She still needs monitoring with her play too. If anything, we want to be there to praise her when she's behaving appropriately.

And, of course, join in on the fun.

After another hot day today, we practiced a lot of rest and relaxation in between our training and play sessions. Lots of rest...

It's a good thing they all like her so much.

And it's always nice to have a little bit of alone time.

August 2012 -- Day Twenty One

It was a very hot day today so we tried to get a lot of our things done early before the heat got to us.

We had a big outing today. We walked in a neighborhood parade. I used a Gentle Leader because I knew it would be a situation with high distractions. I know going into this that her leash skills will be more challenging in this environment so it's nice to have extra help like from something like a head halter.

The parade was full of kids on bikes in costumes, dogs, and a lot of people. It was pretty crowded...not our usual training grounds.

Luckily we had time to adjust to the distractions prior to the parade starting. I can warm up with her at a distance where she can handle the distraction level and slowly work towards a higher level. If I need to, I can step off to the side with her and just work on attention. Needless to say, I had some pretty high value treats on me.

It was a excellent place to practice our greetings. Everyone was very drawn to her, commenting on her beauty and her good manners.

Her leash skills were not always perfect but I didn't expect them to be. It's really hard with so many things going on around her. But all in all, she did really, really well. She was very responsive and listened to my requests.

By the end, she was very easy to manage on leash and quite relaxed even with all the chaos going on around her.

She got a special treat at the pet supply store. They were handing out ice cream for dogs. She turned her nose up at it at first but then, after one little lick, she decided sweet potato ice cream was right up her alley.

She was happy about our little adventure but I think maybe even more happy to be back at the house with the AC. We were all pretty tired by the end of the day.

August 2012 -- Day Twenty

Most of the time Mollie gives you the look like "What can I do for you next." She's eager to please and responsive.

But there are times when she gives you the other look...you know the one. The "You want me to do what?" look.

Part of the reason we do a lot of the things we do is to make sure we get the "I don't think so" look very seldom if at all. So, when she's playing...

We make sure we're involved in the play.

We make sure she's still attentive even when she's playing with her friends.

We make sure our games have rules so it's not just a free for all.

And we give her time to be a dog and do her favorite dog things like sniffing with a friend.

We teach her to wait for permission to do things so she's not running the show. "Wait" helps to keep her safe and helps her to look to us for direction.

We did get a lot of outside time today and the dogs played hard.

It was warm outside today...

And we took advantage of the cool breeze.

But she did practice hanging out by the AC vents in preparation for the heat wave this weekend.

Because tomorrow she'll be begging me to go outside.

So hard to say "no" to this face...

August 2012 -- Day Nineteen

Mollie is such a social girl. She gets along well with other dogs and plays really nicely with them. She's very responsive when you interrupt play when it's getting a bit over the top.

But she's also very people oriented. She really likes to be around people and to be close. Makes me happy...I love being close to Mollie.

She's still a bit nervous about being around new people but her barking has decreased and it's easier to get her attention if she sees someone new. She's always happy to meet new people...she's just not so fond when they are far away and she's not so sure they are where they are suppose to be.

She loves to lead the pack in a rip roaring game of chase. No one can keep up with her so she's sure to win.

But she's happy to share with her friends...even if they are friends that sometimes causes mats in her ears.

She is very sweet with younger dogs. She can be vocal with them, which is mostly normal in play, but she'll settle down right away when asked to do so.

And she's perfectly happy playing by herself. Overall that makes for a pretty well rounded dog. It's no wonder that every where she goes people fall in love with Mollie.

Such a good girl. She's happy to keep me company when it's time to get paperwork done. That will give her a chance to rest up too. It's not easy for a girl to keep up with all the activities happening in this household.

August 2012 -- Day Eighteen

Mollie met a new friend today. It gave us a great opportunity to work on walking towards a goal. This was a really hard one for Mollie but, in the end, we had success! Mollie could see there was a new dog at the house and she really wanted to say "hi." I put a leash on her and we began walking forward towards the new dog. Any time she got ahead of me we quickly turned around and started over again. We did this repeatedly until she was able to walk all the way towards the dog on a loose leash. There were times when we were only a few feet away but we stayed consistent. If she pulled ahead, we turned around. It was not easy for either one of us. If I had been in a hurry, it would have taken me a long time to get from point A to point B. But, it created a situation where Mollie had to be responsible for her own behavior. She had to figure out what would help her move closer to that new dog.

That was a hard one! I mean really, look how cute he is...how could anyone resist?

Her reward was visiting with the puppy but I also threw in a little bit of fetch as a stress reliever. That was really hard work so I want to make sure she is not all tense about it.

A little romp with friends doesn't hurt either.

I sat down to snuggle with Mollie and she was sure I was going to comb out her ears. I was sitting in the same spot where I had combed her mats out several times.

Not to worry, Mollie, just a gentle ear massage and some snuggles. The more I can do things like this with her the less she will associate it with getting her ears combed out.

Besides, you are beautiful just the way you are...

July 2012 -- Day Seventeen

Mollie loves her friends but she's been nice and attentive even when she's in the middle of play with them. But, of course, she's now use to being around them. If it were a brand new dog or group of dogs, it might be a little challenging. New things are always going to add an element of excitement to the air. Practicing with familiar dogs is going to help though. It helps her to learn how to do what you are asking in an environment where she can handle it so she has success but also starts to learn to listen even when there is a lot going on.

We got caught off guard yesterday when someone new came into the play area unexpectedly. Oops, she jumped a couple of times. Normally I would have had her on leash and helped her through that greeting but we didn't have a chance. I quickly got next to her and reminded her to sit and she did fine after that. So, today we practiced doing greetings when I was really excited. It's not going to offer the same level of excitement as someone new coming into the environment but it will help her to practice with success.

She was ready to go for our training walks today and knew she needed to sit for me to leash her up and let her out the gate. Nice start to our training session!

Sometimes she does really well on our walks and other times she's pretty distracted. Today was a distracted day.

But spending a few minutes getting her attention usually gets ready to go. Even so, I know I'm probably going to work harder than normal on this walk. That's ok, it's all part of the learning process.

All her friends were excited to see her when she returned from her training walk. It's nice to have such a big fan base.

They all love her...we're just trying to get them to not love her ears quite so much.