#training progress

[furshrimps]

For some reason Bats is suddenly remarkably okay with strange dogs... the last couple of encounters he simply just stayed calm. He asked me for his usual treats in such a situation, but very calmly compared to how it was before. Today we even had a situation with two unleashed dogs that both joined us (unasked, we'd actually made room for them to pass us, but their owner didn't understand the message lol). Bats and Sammy just didn't care mostly. They even sniffed the spitz for a bit and Sammy sniffed the GSD. Both seemed kinda elderly and they were very calm and pretty polite and all, mostly interested in the treats, but not begging. Just looking if something happened to come their way (it didn't). They did come very close to us though, and I find it amazing that my dogs didn't care even as the others almost touched them or came really close to get a sniff. The two dogs stayed a while while their owner went ahead calling for them from time to time, and at some point she called to me 'if you keep feeding them treats they never will come back'. As if that was my responsibility 🤣 Good lady, if your dogs are glued to a treat machine it's your responsibility to get them, not the treat machine's. But that aside, I'm reeeeaaaaalllly, really impressed with Bats these days. It's like he suddenly understood "oh I'm supposed to not care about other dogs okay can do". I'm pretty sure Rudi's presence has something to do with it, but after like 7 years of constant training this feels really, really good.

[tripledogbrain-blog]

Mickey finished his final trick class today and passed his intermediate level test. Just have to send his results in. He's a good boy. He reacted a lot and had some issues today especially with just being too nervous to do certain things. Luckily though he knew more than 10 tricks he could use so we were able to squeak by. He's a good boy and tries so hard. Plus a woman called him beautiful like 4 different time while her husband and their dog took the test so that was good for my soul too. :)

[zestyhooves]

Local boy is excited for the pedicure to start

[thechromatica]

Left is April just 2 weeks after beginning training and the right is today!

[cosmic-hound]

NO! MORE! CRATING!!!

We did it, folks. In just under a year, Mars went from a neurotic, sick mess of a dog with no manners who wanted to KILL my cats. He stole food and despite the fact he was housebroken, he had accidents of the solid nature fairly frequently.

After some upset following my vacation, his crating got SCREWED and he screamed all night like the first night he was home all over again. So I tested him. I started letting him stay unkenneled while I went for work and the roommate would be home soon, so just a few hours at a time. We gradually worked up. But it made his night time crating more hateful and he started to bark again.

This past week, I really chanced it. I let him out uncrated over night.

AND NOT A PEEP. Not a word, not a poo! A little pacing the first night but as soon as we established a routine he was set. I can finally sleep in again!

So we are finally done with crating. Obviously it's going to stay around and I'll keep reinforcing it as a good place to be, but not being forced to confine him eases up the pressure of the training so much.