Ah, midterm season. Leaves room for little else.
We have continued to work on different things around here. On Sunday I finally got around to finishing the videos for Perrin’s expert trick dog title, and Sei’s novice trick dog titles. So now they both have new titles! Whoohoo! I will get around to uploading the videos on YouTube eventually…
Today Sei went for his first cruise by the local dog park. He doesn’t see many dogs in his life, and I was curious to see how he reacted to many dogs doing crazy things in the distance. He was solid! Looked at them interestedly, but didn’t get excited or over aroused. He easily played with me instead, but got distracted from time to time. Good start! His walking on a leash leaves lots to be desired though….Funny how having a yard (ie no leash required for bathroom trips) has put leash walking lower on my list of things to do.
I need to start working on practical things with Sei, because it’s getting a little out of hand. Playing in new places (he plays *amazing* in the back yard, time to take the show on the road), stationing/staying in an open crate while Perrin works, recalls, and loose leash walking are priorities.
I tried putting the manners minder in the soft crate for Sei while I worked Perrin, and that worked great until it was Sei’s turn to come out. He wouldn’t. So I left him there and Perrin and I went upstairs (crate was open) and turned the downstay function off so he wouldn’t be getting any treats. Well that was a bad idea, because once Sei came upstairs I went down to take the manners minder out of the crate. Perrin and Sei followed me down, and Perrin stuck his head in the soft crate while I was in it pulling the manners minder out. Sei found that extremely offensive, and made it very clear to Perrin that he thinks that space is his alone. Luckily Perrin is a sensible guy and didn’t escalate things. Guess I will have to come up for a better plan, because I don’t want Sei guarding the crate. The prospect of a dog fight in a crate is not a good one.
Adventures in Dog Training 