This still feels a little weird writing about my experiences with Willow. Laurie assures me this will be very useful, especially on those days when she is being a little stinker and it seems like we are starting all over again.
This morning was great. When we went outside for the first time I let Willow play a bit after she did her business and while I cleaned up her little presents in the yard. Boy for such a little thing she sure can produce some MEGA stinky pooh! While outside I decided to water a couple of planters and that's when the fun began. At first Willow didn't want anything to do with the water and that was fine but the little drops of water coming off the end of the hose and sprayer were just too much for her to resist! She came up right beside me and began trying to catch the drops of water. It was funny. It got even funnier when she realized that the spray was lots and lots of drops of water. She began running under the spray and jumping up and trying to get the drops. Every so often she would drop into a crouch and then proceed to roll in the grass under the spray. She was having a blast and I was laughing so hard I nearly wet my pants! She can be a real hoot sometimes. When I turned the water off Willow gave me this really disgusted look. She would look at me and then look pointedly at the hose as if to say "Turn the water back on, I wasn't done having fun yet." But I had to get ready for church and we still needed to do some training and have breakfast.
Willow only had one accident today and that was totally my fault. She had been doing so well that I forgot to set the timer to remind me when it was time to take her out and I got busy making dinner. Of course that is when she would have a problem. But we went outside and she did her business again and then we played a little and I had my husband watch her while I finished getting dinner ready.
We did 5 short training sessions today. Willow was having a real difficult time concentrating. We worked on her name, touch, sit, stand, and sit to touch and stand. We also spent a bit of time playing with toys today and I was finally able to get her to play with some toys. Her current favorite is the large Hedgehog that grunts and squeaks. She also likes the tennis ball that squeaks and the Minnie Mouse Water Bottle toy. She is beginning to get the idea of go get it. we play with Hedgehog and I tell her to go get it when I throw it. She will go chasing after it and then she will do one of two things. She will either start wrestling with it and making it squeak and/or grunt or she will bring it to me to throw again. I praise her lavishly and she gets a jackpot/high value treat for bringing it to me.
There were a couple of times today when Willow just wanted to lay beside me and chill. She would take one of her chew toys and just chill. I really had a chance to enjoy her today and not constantly worry about her pottying in the house and being super active.
Today on our walk Willow met 5 men (a short and heavy, a tall and skinny, a bald guy, a young guy, and an old guy); she also met 3 women (Short with long black hair, Tall with very straight blonde hair, older with curly gray hair) and several children one of which was very scarred of her. I am continually amazed at how well Willow walks on a leash for being so young. 95% of the time she walks with a loose leash. She walks better than any of the older dogs I have had. I never expected that. I am also amazed at how quickly she recovers from being startled. I try hard not to give her reinforcement of startled or scarred behaviors but I am only human and sometimes I mess up. I notice that if I am very matter of fact and pretend like it's no big deal she usually acts that way as well. I try to remove her from those situations as soon as I can.
Tomorrow should be interesting. It will be my first day working from home, I have a meeting with Laurie to develop our training plan for Willow and I, and Willow gets to spend the day at the vets because she needs to be checked to see if her UTI has cleared up and because of working I won't be able to pick her up till about 4:30 pm and will have to drop her off at 7:00 am. My vets office encourages the pet parents to leave their pets there all day so the staff can play with them and the pets can learn that this is a good place to be and these are good people. It actually makes exams easier on everyone.
Well, I have rambled enough for today.
Till next time...
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