I can't believe it has been almost 5 weeks since I have posted. My life has been very hectic and stressful. In addition to my normal issues of fighting my MS, working full time, going to doctors, teaching genealogy classes and training Willow. My life got crazier. My husband had surgery to remove some skin cancer on his back and we found out they didn't get it all the first time so he has to have another surgery on November 12th. My father got pneumonia again and nearly died and I found out his lung cancer is now stage 4. Our family is devastated. But enough of the sad stuff.
Here is some of what i have been doing with Willow since I lasted posted. We continue to work on our foundation behaviors (Sit, Stay, Down, Off, Come, potty on command, touch, leave it, loose leash walking, heel). Some days she is a star student and an absolute genius. Other days she looks at me like she has never heard the command before. It must be her age and the preteen or teenager in her. Overall she is getting a lot better. In fact last week I went to my local PetsMart and one of the people who came to talk to me there was their trainer. She was asking a lot of questions and of course wanted to know what I was doing for training. She asked if we could go into the training area and if she could see me work with her. Then she asked if she could work with her. She said she was extremely impressed because most 4 1/2 month old dogs do not respond as well or as quickly as Willow does. That makes me feel good because that morning was a particularly difficult training session. It was like Willow had forgotten everything she ever knew. She did better in the afternoon.
We have also been working on public access. I have been picking smaller places that are less busy for the most part. We have gone to two places that she doesn't want to go into so I don't make her. They are Quizno's and Papa Murphy's. The places she has really liked going into are of course PetsMart and PetCo, the local health food store, Taco Time, Subway, Maverick, Home Depot, Walmart, and the doctors office. When we do the public access I have been setting a timer so that I stay in no longer than 5-10 min at a time. She is getting so much better when we are in these places. She will actually sit quietly beside me part of the time and also walk with a loose leash part of the time.
I am hoping to have a friend tape us training a couple of times so that I can post to this blog.
Halloween was a real eye opener. When the first kids came my husband had a hold of her leash. She doesn't listen to him very well so she nearly pulled his arm off trying to get to the door. He wanted me to put her in her crate for the night but I wanted to see if she would do better for me. So when the next batch of kids came by I had her leash (short leash). She pulled a bunch but not enough to turn my hand red so for her not bad. She got excited to answer the door every time the doorbell rang or someone knocked. She had no fear of the costumes. She and the kids and their parents had a great time saying hi. I was also impressed that she didn't try to jump on any of the kids or adults. She did remarkably well.
I will post pictures in the next post.
Till next time my friends...
