Ty was a another PRs house from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon. Overall she got a good report: she was excellent with the house cat, settled in well at work, had good house manners, etc etc. The PR did mention things that I already knew about though: she has dog distraction, and a slight adolescent "stubborn side". I've been working really hard with her dog distraction, but have seen little progress. Does anyone have any tips? Tyanna is still putting up a fight about putting on her vest, which part of me thinks may be an adolescent behavior, but it is still something that needs to be fixed. Today I took Ty on her first trip to Costco. She was at first a little nervous around the huge carts and loud noises, but quickly adjusted. Her people distractibility has improved loads, and she really only loses focus at the people who insist on smooching, whistling, and calling her to come to them. Being a lab, I don't really blame her though. We practiced commands in the aisles of food, and took some time to sit in the demo chairs and watch the carts and people go by. I even let her pick our a new dog bed, which she couldn't wait to use:
The tired pup is currently laying by my feet wrapped up in one of my blankets (that she decided to make her own)...sound asleep.
4 comments:
YAY - I'm glad Tyanna is progressing along so well in her recovery. That's great news!
And, I'm sure she picked out the best bed in the house!:)
Glad Tyanna is recovering from her surgery so quickly!
Onalee has been resistent with the cape since the time I got her. She will tense up, try to get away, duck her head, back up, stand on her hind feet, bolt.... anything.
Slowly over the last 2 months or so, I've been working with AT trainers at NW on getting her to tolerate putting on her cape (cape only, not gentle leader)... we are now at the point that I can put it on, and she only pulls her ears back - HUGE progress.
A few tips they gave me:
1. Make her wear it ALL the time; Onalee runs with it on, eats, plays, trains, sleeps, and goes potty with it on. That way they realize the cape still means they can be normal - since these dogs work 24/7.
2. Ignore her resistent behavior, and she will slowly (very slowly) learn it doesn't work to resist it so she might as well accept it and not draw it out.
3. Make it a game; this didn't work with Onalee, but apparently making them want to chase it, and get REALLY excited when it comes out helps them realize it's a good thing and means they get to go somewhere and not be left at home? Hasn't worked with her.
However, after 7 months of this, NW trainers and I have come to the conclusion that it runs deeper with Onalee than just not wanting to work or put it on. One exercise I did to see if she could handle anything going over her head, was have her walk through a hulahoop. Which took her about 10 minutes to do, she was shaking and cowering - and that was with her toys flying, good bowl clanking and lots of "fun".
Hopefully Ty's is just teenage rebellion and not so pyschological as Onalee - it's tough, she has anything going over her head, but doesn't mind being in close quarters(like say against a wall or in a crate).
Good luck- let me know what works for you, I might have to try it on Onalee! Hopefully I can get her to the point of just standing there, and maybe CCI can place her with a graduate capable of dealing with this small issue - because other than that, she's perfect!
I just found your blog! Tyanna is adorable!!! would you mind if I linked to you guys?
~Taelor and Eagle~
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