Hot, hot, hot!

It’s been so hot here lately that I’ve been doing almost all of Caden’s training indoors.  We’ve gone and worked at the outdoor mall when it’s been cool enough, and he’s been in a couple of new stores, including the cookie store at the outdoor mall, Bath and Body Works, and Kroger.

At the cookie store, we just ambled in and Caden practiced a long sit while Billy ordered a cookie and a drink.  Caden did great with that, but I didn’t want to tempt him too much with the cookies, so we left right after getting our cookie.

When we went into Bath and Body Works, Caden was very good until we came across a display of squeaky duck toys.  At that point, he got a bit distracted, so we worked around the squeaky ducks until he wasn’t quite as interested in them.  We walked around the store after that, and he did very well at ignoring the other squeaky duck toys scattered throughout the store.

We went to Kroger and I asked Tom to bring a mart cart outside so I could practice heeling with it.  Caden got excited when he saw Tom driving the cart out and he let out a bark, so I corrected him and worked on sits and downs while Tom drove past us.  After that, I got on the mart cart and worked with him on heeling.  He did extremely well – he heeled right next to it and only forged once or twice.

Once we had worked outside for a few minutes, we went inside and practiced there.  Caden did very well, not even trying to sniff when we went past a nose-level candy display and ignoring people talking to him.  He did slide into a down from a sit a couple of times – lazy boy!  I had him get back into a sit and reinforced him for holding the position.

The past couple of times we’ve worked at the outdoor mall, kids have been entranced with Caden.  A few days ago, we went there to train and a little girl kept running up and grabbing at him – she finally grabbed him around the rear and kissed him on the butt, right above the tail.  Caden didn’t seem to mind, but at that point I decided to move on before she molested him any more!

Bad blogger, no cookie

I haven’t posted in what seems like forever – I don’t have a good excuse for it…I’ve just been busier than usual and keep forgetting to write.

I finally remembered to bring the camera along when taking Caden out to train today.  We just went to Sonic and Caden practiced down stays and retrieves.  Getting a photo of a retrieve was a pain – almost all of the photos turned out blurry!  I finally resorted to posing him with my camera bag in his mouth and got this picture, which is decent:

While we were there, I had a cup of ice cream.  Caden was very hopeful that I would share:

Lizard!

Yesterday, we were out in the yard and Billy saw this:

Our neighbors offered us a lizard a couple of weeks ago, and evidently let him go.  When I tried to get him to scurry off to someplace safe, he moved a few inches then went back to sunning himself.

We brought him inside, installed him in the aquarium we had sitting around, and named him Spike.  Then we started looking for someone who wanted a lizard to love.  Luckily, Tom knew someone whose brother wanted him, and Spike went to his new home today.

Out in the backyard

Grady is in the chair.  That means he’s in charge and serious.

Very serious.

Of course, he can’t stay that serious for long without laughing at himself.

That even brought a smile to Caden’s face!

Grady goes to class

Caden had a bit of an upset stomach earlier, so I took Grady with me to class earlier today.  Cait came along and brought Kaylee to work on down stays around other dogs.

Grady already knows everything being taught in that obedience class, and has been proofed around other dogs, so class didn’t hold anything exciting or new for him.  He enjoyed going to class because he likes getting to train no matter what, but he was a bit bored at times.  I took the opportunity to practice retrieves at the beginning of class, but we only got to do a couple before the other dogs came in and class started.

The instructor had the dogs do a stand for exam, and there’s a pointer puppy in class that was very wriggly during the SFE.  I ended up talking after class with his owner to give him a couple of suggestions on how to keep him calm and still when someone goes over him.  I suggested that she find people who are willing to go over him, and to start out with rewarding for standing still while someone reaches towards him, then move on to having people touch his head, then touch his head and withers, and so on – at each step, being sure to reinforce calm, still behavior.

After that, we went out to eat at Outback.  Word got around that there were dogs under our table, and we had several of the waitstaff walk by and take a quick peek at them.  Quite a difference from our usual Outback, where the people working there take Grady in stride.

“No Myths” Public Service Announcement

A post in pictures

I love the way Grady looks when he does recalls because he’ll turn and run full-out back to me.

I also love watching him jump – here he is jumping a stream at our local park.  I especially like what his ears are doing in this picture.

Grady and Caden like to wrestle and play bitey-face – I call it “Dalmatian rumble.”

This week in training

Caden and I have been out quite a bit this past week to places other than Pilot.  We’ve gone to Half-Price Books several times, and Caden has already learned that when I hit the clearance section (where books are $3 or less) to lie down and settle in for a bit.  We’ve also gone to the outdoor mall a couple of times, but it’s been a bit chilly every time we’ve gone so we haven’t been staying long.

We haven’t done too much other than that – we’ve worked some on retrieves, going under chairs, and jumping.

For fun, the other day I was working with Grady on retrieving things from difficult places (wedged in between items on the bookshelf, for example).  It’s always interesting to see how he’ll use his paws to manipulate something into a position where he can easily pick it up in his mouth.

Grady has also done some jumping, but I really need to make several jumps to work with him on different patterns.  I also want to make a tire jump, since right now I’m using an old hula hoop.

The dogs miss our backyard

Last week, we seeded the backyard, and it’s currently off limits until the grass has grown enough to be walked on.  We’re taking the dogs out front to potty, and they’re getting to run at the field down the street, but they (and I) miss being able to hang out in the backyard.  It’s raining right now so hopefully that will help the grass to grow!

Last week, Caden and I only made it to Tuesday’s class.  We ended up ducking outside several times because the air conditioning wasn’t on and it was HOT.  On Wednesday, I decided to skip class because I had a bad headache.  Poor Caden was looking forward to going out, and instead he had to stay home and get his training time in our living room.

We’ve done several training sessions up at Pilot over the past week, but haven’t really gone anyplace else.  We went to the park once, but pretty much all we worked on there was heeling.  We also did a bit of training at the field where they run, but that doesn’t really count!  I’m hoping to get over to the outdoor mall and the park a couple of times this week.

I’ll end this post with proof that I torture my dogs:

That’s Sputnik sitting on Grady’s back (in our backyard, before it was seeded).

It stopped raining

After about a week of rain, it finally stopped and my backyard is no longer a mud pit.  All of the dogs are enjoying being able to spend more time outdoors playing, and I’m really appreciating not having to pop dogs into the tub to rinse off feet every day.

On Sunday, I took Caden to a local carnival to do some training.  We just hung out at the edge and practiced sits, long downs, and heeling.  He did well although he got distracted a couple of times – I got his attention back easily.  We did some heeling up to and near one of the rides (it was called the “Berry-Go-Round”), and Caden glanced at it then ignored it, even when kids riding on it started barking at him while we were standing next to it.

We had our second days of classes on Tuesday and Wednesday.  In the Tuesday class, Caden vocalized some at the beginning when we first walked into the room, then settled down for the first half of class.  In the last half, he was bouncing around and WIRED.  He actually jumped on me a couple of times, which he rarely does unless he’s really wound up.  I ended up pulling him out of the line of dogs and taking him outside for a break.  When we went back inside he was a bit calmer but still hyped up.  I suspect that he behaved that way because he had gone several days on not much exercise, then I asked him to settle down and concentrate in class.

In the Wednesday class, he was much calmer.  He vocalized once, at the beginning of class, when we were passing a dog he wanted to visit.  After that he stayed quiet, even when a bulldog growled and barked at him.  He was slow with his sits and downs when there was a lot going on, so we’re focusing on quick sits and downs even when he’s being distracted by something.

Today I took Caden and Grady up to the Pilot to train.  I worked with Caden first and he did really good, although he got bouncy and excited when Mere (Cait’s roommate) showed up – he really wanted to go over and say hi.  He didn’t get to visit and I had him sit and did attention work to get him settled down.  Then, we did some short stays and heeling.

Then I put Caden in the car and worked with Grady.  I just did some fun stuff with Grady – I had him jump to touch my hand, had him pivot to get on either side of me, and had him do some fast sits and downs.  I wanted to do some retrieves but left his dumbbell at home, and I couldn’t find a good replacement in the car.  I need to get my extra dumbbells back and go back to keeping one in the center console in the car!

In non-dog news, we have a couple of new family members – two chicks (an Ameraucana and a Barred Rock) named Sputnik and Laika.  They lived at Cait’s house for a little while, but now they’re residing in a large box in our front room.  The dogs are interested in them, but know that they are not to mess with the chicks’ home.  Grady is currently the only dog allowed out while the chicks are out.

Sputnik is the Ameraucana and she’s huge, about twice the size of Laika (and they’re the same age, give or take a day).  She’s also pretty sure that she is not a chicken, but instead is a hawk or some other sort of fierce bird.  Laika is not as bold but is very sweet, and she likes being held.  They’re getting their feathers in, but are still pretty fuzzy.