Sometimes Life gets in the way...

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...

New Places, New Faces

Where have the last few days gone?  Life has been so busy.  Let's get up to date on what's been happening on the training scene.

In the last couple of days Willow and I have had a couple of adventures.  I am continuing to take her new places and having her meet new people.

Some of the places we have gone are walking in the neighborhood, the local park, the IFA Store, Maverick, and standing outside at Costco.  She has been able to meet short people, tall people, fat people, skinny people, black people, brown people, old people, young people, little kids, infants, etc.
She is becoming pretty comfortable going to new places.  She really likes seeing the people even when I don't let them pet her.  Something I am noticing is she walks much better when I walk her and use my cane rather than the walker. It's kind of odd but the walker seems to bring out the puller in her.  Whereas using just a leash she will walk loose leash 75 - 80% of the time.

Sunday our home teacher  and his son came by.  Willow did good with them.  We had a little trouble getting the son to understand that you don't want to reach your hands up to a dogs head.  With Willow she thinks you want to play and will try to grab your hand.  When she did this to the son he got scared.  We need to work with him more especially since they are thinking of getting a dog of their own.

Monday was a good day.  Willow played nicely in the office most of the day while I worked and so she only had to spend a minimal amount of time her crate.  I gave her a treat last night and let her sleep with me.  She thought she had died and gone to heaven and she settled right down and went to sleep.

Today was my birthday and I took the day off work.  Willow and I had a very busy day.  We started by going to my neurologist.  Willow was a huge hit at the office and did very well.  She did get a little antsy in the exam room while we were waiting for the doctor to come in so I worked on her training.  I was quite happy that she would still give me focus attention, respond to her name, and do the hand and sticky note touch, even when the tech and later the doctor were in the room.
After the doctor visit we went to Home Depot so the employees there could meet the dog they helped raise money for.  Again, she was a huge hit and she behaved like such a little lady.  I was so proud of her.  Especially since there were so many new and strange sounds there.

From there we went to the Ma & Paw Bakery and bought her a bully stick.  She loves it!  Then I took her to the Utah Dog Park where she was interviewed for going to doggy daycare.  She did really well and ended up staying the rest of the day.  When I picked her up tonight she was so tired she fell asleep in the car.

She and I are calling it an early night tonight because we are both so tired.

Till next time friends....

Sunday has been the best day yet!

Willow - Thursday night

Willow during the playtime at Puppy Train and Play Wednesday Night

Today has been a great day!  We are now on day 3 with no potty accidents!  Willow actually went to the door and scratched on it twice today to go out.  We gave her tons of praise petting and a jackpot treat, a cookie from PetCo (a sandwich cookie)  It is her favorite cookie.  Those two things make today a red letter day!

We upped the ante on the touch exercise today.  I started putting a sticky note on my hand.  At first Willow was really confused and kept touching outside the sticky note.  So, I started moving my hand to keep the sticky note in front of her nose. I did this 3 or 4 times and then she got it and would touch the paper without my moving my hand (most of the time).  When I made a fist and put the sticky note on it she touched the note every time and stopped trying to find a spot on my hand that didn't have the sticky note.

This morning we had a good time at the local park.  we were the only ones there.  I put her on the 20 foot training lead so that she could run around a bit.  She loved that!  Especially when I threw her ball for her (Kong SqueakAir Tennis ball).  the great thing is she brought the ball to within 6 inches of me 3 times.  That is a record for her.  When we got back from the park we went for a walk around the block.  Three of the kids across the street were out playing (1 girl, about 10 yrs old, 1 boy about 8 yrs old, 1 boy about 6 yrs old.).  I know these children and know that they can be gentle and not get too wild or excited around a dog and they are not fearful of dogs.  So I asked them to help me with Willow.  I told them that she hadn't met or seen any new people today and would like their help because she has to learn to behave around them.  They of course were thrilled.  They came up quietly and calmly to Willow and we introduced her to them.  Then they began petting her.  When she would try to jump on them they took 2 steps back, crossed their arms and turned their backs on her.  Willow didn't like that.  When she stopped jumping they would turn around again and give her attention.  This happened twice before she got the idea if she jumped on them she wouldn't get petted.  They said their parents taught them that because they just got a new puppy and are trying to train him not to jump.  After about 5 minutes we continued our walk.  I heard someone calling me and turned around to see the dad of the kids running towards me.  He wanted to meet Willow too.  her had been  watching the kids and Willow and he told me how impressed he was.  She is so calm even when excited.  She's also more than twice the size of  their pup and only 3 weeks older.  He just cant' believe the difference in the 2 dogs.  He has been observing Willow since we got her on August 30th. Within about 20 seconds the kids had come to join him as well as the other 3 kids that were at their home. So there were now 6 kids ranging in age from 1 1/2 to 10 yrs.  I was amazed at Willow.  With the older kids she tried to get a little rambunctious but with the 2 small children she was very gentle and didn't once try to jump on them even though they had food in their hands and  you could see she really wanted it.  So I decided it was to to seal the friendship with the kids.  All 6 kids had Popsicles and a cookie in their hand.  I asked the kids if they would like to take turns and each give Willow a treat.  They were ecstatic!  I laid the ground rules.  One person at a time and Willow had to finish one treat before she could have another.  The kids were great, even the 2 little ones.  They each quietly and gently gave Willow her treat (I took 2 doggy cookies and broke them into 3 pieces each).  Willow and the kids were having a great time.  I felt like a meany but we needed to continue our walk so we said good bye and continued on.

Willow loved the cooler air we had today and she thoroughly enjoyed her walk.  By the time we got home she was one pooped pup.  She went into her crate as soon as I took her leash off and laid done and went right to sleep.  She slept for almost 2 hours.

It will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes since I will be working again.

Till next time my friends...

09/15 & 09/16

The time just seemed to get away from me yesterday and I didn't get a post in.  Yesterday was my first day working from home and dealing with a puppy.  Though in all honesty I didn't have her a lot of the day.  Willow had a vet appointment and ended up spending the day at the vets.  She had a blast and they are all in love with her.  The vet gave us great news.  Willow's UTI is all cleared up!  YAY!!! We had a good time playing before going to the vet.  While at the vet's she played extremely hard.  They had something like 7 puppies there that day and they all got along great and played great. According to all the tech's and the vet Willow had a great time.  I know she was sure tired.  They actually had to wake her up to bring her to me.  That's just not like her.  Apparently Willow and another pup were playing and they both fell asleep while playing.  Training was a little tough yesterday.  Willow's heart just wasn't into it. She would respond to sit, touch, or her name 2, maybe 3 times and then just lay and close her eyes.  So I decided the one 5 minute session would have to do.  She was just too tired to concentrate. She slept REALLY well last night and she slept in this morning.

Today was a good day.  We both slept in a little and so we were running late.  I barely got started on my work on time.  I decided to do an experiment this morning.  After she had eaten and gone potty I brought her into my office with me.  She did wonderful for about 45 min.  She was chewing on her antler and a couple of her stuffies (stuffed animal chew toys).  She lay down right next to me and was very quiet and mellow.  Then she started getting restless so we took a quick trip outside to potty and then because she still seemed tired I put her in her crate for awhile with a small milk  bone and her toys.  Checked on her 5 min later and she was fast asleep.  Came back in 2 hours and woke her up.  We went for a short walk, played in the yard, did some more training on touch, sit, down, off and then came in and chilled in the office for another 45 min.  Went back outside to potty, came back in had lunch, back out to potty, rest time in crate. Then spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between being outside, training, working in office, and crate time.
I have noticed that she is most active first thing in the morning and later in the evening after it begins to cool down.  Willow definitely doesn't like the heat.

This evening we decided we wanted to go to Quizno's for dinner so Willow and I went down to get our food.  At first when we went in she seemed a little unsure of herself but as we were turning around to leave other people started coming in and she got so excited to see them that she forgot to be nervous. There was a tall heavy set gentlemen who wanted to pet her and I let him.  There were also 2 young women who looked at her but wanted nothing to do with petting her.  And that was fine.  Willow got her first taste of not being able to have everyone make a fuss over her. When she tried to pull away from me to get to them (or so I thought) I redirected her attention.  I called her name and since she turned her head towards me I clicked and gave a jackpot treat (a small piece of cheese). Every time I could get her to look at me I clicked and treated. I wanted to reward her for looking at me with major distractions around.  Three people in the restaurant, One of whom brought food from Subway and sat the bag on the floor (that's what Willow was trying to get to) plus there were all the yummy food smells from Quizno's.  It was enough to make your mouth water, let a lone a little pup.   I  was very proud of her today.

Till next time...

Bringing Willow home

I brought Willow home on August 30th.  She was quite nervous about getting in the car. She was also quite a bit scarred and ended up having an accident in the back seat.  I was so happy I took the precaution of buying puppy proof seat covers for the car.  It was easily wiped up and never reached the cars upholstery. Because I had a company barbecue I needed to be at we came home and spent some time with Willow and then took her to a very good friend who will also be her groomer.  KayLynn of Pup Cutz Grooming in North Salt Lake.  Willow had a great time playing with Nacho KayLynn's Chihuahua.  We had Willow till Monday morning when she went to Laurie's home for some board and train time.  We were not doing well with the potty training thing. I kept forgetting that Willow didn't know how to tell me she had to go potty so she kept having accidents.  Laurie, bless her heart, spent 2 weeks working with Willow on her potty training, basic manners, touch, focus, and name training.

On Sept 3rd Willow had her first vet visit with me.  The vet office I am using is the Animal Care Center in West Bountiful Utah.  The vets there are wonderful and caring!  She saw Dr. Pam for her check up, shots and worming.  Willow also went to her first puppy training and socializing class that evening at the Utah Dog Park. The class is led by Laurie, of Side by Side Dog Training. Willow and I had a great time. On Sept 6th Willow was diagnosed with an UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) and started on antibiotics.
On Sept 10th Willow went to her 2nd Puppy Class and seemed to really enjoy it, I know I did.  On Saturday, the 13th  (Today) Willow came home.

When we got home, I immediately took Willow outside to potty.  After she pottied we played a few minutes and then went inside to set up her crate.  Willow kept looking at me and I could just imagine her saying, "What do you think you are doing?  This is my crate, leave it alone. She had me laughing so hard at one point I had a difficult time putting it together.  She kept trying to get in it as I was trying to get it set up.  I think it took 3 or 4 times as long as it should have because she was trying to "help" After that I fed her using one of my puzzle feeders and laughed really hard then as well because it was so funny watching her work the puzzle to get to the food.  She is one smart puppy! We spent most of the day together with her taking rest periods in her crate.  At one point we went for a walk.  I now know 2 things we need to work on with her.

There was a boy about 12 yrs old in a cul-d-sac that we walked by.  He was on a skateboard and she was fine with that.  She was wagging her tail and being her usual happy self but stopped for a rest (we were on the way home and she was getting tired).  All of a sudden the boy made a circle around the cul-d-sac and went up his skateboard ramp and did a big jump.  that startled Willow and she took off and yanked the leash right out of my hand.  Now the yanking the leash out of my hand was my own fault.  I had become too complacent because she was doing so well I was holding the leash very loosely in my hand.  It took nothing for her to pull away.  We must have looked quite the site, me with my walker chasing her across the street into the park, the kid behind me and Willow deciding it's a game.  After her first startled reaction and my trying to chase her and catch her she decided to play.  So I know she wasn't overly traumatized.  In fact she went right up to the boy to be petted.  That's how I caught her.  The little stinker. So lesson learned.  She doesn't like airborn skateboards.  She's also not overly fond of lawn mowers. The rest of the day was uneventful. We just did playtime, crate time, training, food.

More next time...