New Family Member, Pics to Come Soon.....

[FreshwaterJeff]

Cool pics. And man, that is a decent amount of mud...haha...

[Lonewolfblue]

Here's what a friend said about it all......

Ahhhh, glorious Pacific Northwest mud!!!! Looooove it! We have a saying at our house that the way you know it's been a good day is if we're dirty at the end of it. Clearly, by my standards, Betty had a great day! Thank you for sharing her progress! It's so fun to see a dog doing "it's thing."

[Lonewolfblue]

Here's some more pics......

[Lonewolfblue]

Well, I have an almost new kennel being delivered tonight. Betty's going to like it. And she'll have room to run while I'm at work. It's a 6'x12'x6'. Just need to make some kind of top for it so she can't get out, as she's been known to jump that high with no problems, lol. I'm also getting horse stall matting to put down under it so she can't dig out. A friend uses it and said it's much better on the dogs joints than putting the kennel on concrete. It's a kennel that uses the panels, and not the long stretch of chain-link fencing. Can't wait, should be here by 7:30.

[Lotus]

It sounds like she's really becoming part of the family

[Lonewolfblue]

Yup, that she is. The guy came and dropped off the kennel. Now I just need to go to Big R and get the horse stall mats to put down, then set the kennel up on them. That way she can't dig out. Then I just have to find a way to put a top over it so she can't jump out, lol. A 6ft fence is no problem for her. lol.

[Lonewolfblue]

Betty's been doing pretty well lately. Her trainer has also given her a travel kennel as well. That way I can put her in it when we go places and she's safe. She would always have free roam of the car, which was not the best idea, and my other kennel was too big to fit in the back seat of the car. Now we have something. Got it free. So we've started crate training with the new crate. At first she didn't even want to go in, but I kept telling Betty, 'In the house'. As soon as she went in, I started being really happy and she'd come out to be petted and scratched on the belly. I would do it over and over. Then 2 days later, she started going in on her own, and as soon as I saw her go in, I would act very happy and she'd come out and run happily to me for petting and belly rubs. Within 4 days, she absolutely loves the new crate. Took no food, just being really, really happy and giving her pets and belly rubs. I see people trying hard to crate train their dogs, trying to force them in and feeding in them, and then end up not liking them at all. I highly recommend at least trying this method, getting the dog really excited when they go in. It really works. I also had a friend here locally do it because he had his dog where he absolutely hated the crate. Within a week, the dog was beginning to actually like it. So I know it works, and usually works fast from what I've experienced.

As for our walks, Betty's doing pretty well. She still lunges at other dogs if they get too close, but we've been working on it. The other day, we saw 2 sets of dogs walking the trail, and we were down by the river. I decided to get Betty in the middle. So we let the first ones walk by, then got up on the trail. She was more interested in the pups behind us than the one in front of us. We walked a couple miles this way until we were back at the parking area. While walking, Betty would stop, and I would let out the long line, and as soon as I neared the end of the line, I would say 'Betty, Come', and she would come running up to me and I would treat her and say, 'You see those nice puppies?', and we would walk a little farther and she'd stop again and I would repeat. Occasionally she would run ahead, looking at the dog ahead, then stop, and as soon as I got to her, would praise her and tell her she's being a good dog, giving treats. She did really well, and never lunged either direction. And it was really fun too. I wish I could have setups like this more often.

Then there was another day where we got in front of another dog, and Betty did the same. The only difference this time is they were walking faster than we were, and were slowly gaining. And I saw Betty's arrousal level increasing, but she kept coming. Then, before they got too close, I found a place where I could take her off the trail and let them pass by with no issues. Thought I'd rather end it on a positive note than lunging. She did really well. So things are slowly getting better. She just needs more work, and lots of praises.

[Lonewolfblue]

Here's some more pics of Betty......

[Lonewolfblue]

Here's Betty's new kennel......

[Lonewolfblue]

Well, it's Monday again, guess what that means? You probably guessed correctly, she had school today. But instead of doing her normal Rally training, we changed it up a bit and worked on Obedience. We worked on her heeling, did some drills with heeling in a straight line, then heeling in a straight line with a hault in the middle. Then finally, we drilled her on watching me while heeling, where we would heel in a straight line and whenever she took her eyes off me, we would stop and I would put her at a sit. It went very well, but she's got to practice, practice, practice. But she'll get it, will take some time. So this is my homework for the week, having 2 to 3 short sessions a day for the whole week, doing a little of each of these 3 things that we worked on. We will do some more Rally on occasion, but her classes are going to be working more on her Basic Obedience, which should correct her sloppyness in Rally-O.