Town Forest and PetSmart today

It was a beautiful day for a walk, so we went to the Town Forest.

Pro wore a snazzy new backpack, actually it's not new, it was Ebony's. Maybe if I fill it with rocks it will use up some of Pro's energy! But today it was empty, just getting used to it. Pro took it in stride.

Handsome, eh?

Now that the weather is nicer, there are a lot more dogs at the Town Forest, and it didn't go super well. Most dogs are off leash, and don't really listen to their owners, so all in all it is way too uncontrolled for Pro at this point. A couple of times dogs ran up to him, and his behavior was way too over the top, not paying attention to me at all, not good for him to practice. Though each time, once the other dog moved along, he settled right back down. But for now, we'll need to work somewhere more below threshold. Hence, our trip to PetSmart:

As you can see, we're starting a loooong way from the store. This was actually the perfect distance to start. You can tell by Pro's big wrinkly forehead that any closer would have been too close:

I think we'll be spending a lot of time right about here. He actually worked quite well here, some loose leash walking and hand touch, and just lots and lots of hanging out and looking. Pro really seems to need a lot of looking time. I just read a good article about taking things slow with training, and just letting your dog learn to do nothing with you, it fit in perfectly with the training place we're in right now. I think at first I did well with taking it slow with Pro, but I've started moving a little too fast. I think it is because he acts so normal most of the time now, I forget that he still has so much to learn.

Crazy week, but doing better

So, this week I was really getting discouraged. My life has been so extra crazy, not a minute to spare, and so stressful that I was completely drained. The dogs haven't been getting the attention they need, and Pro has really been the worse for it. Major cabin fever- there is still too much snow in the yard and on the sidewalks to get out much. The crusty snow hurts Pros' paws- more on his paws later. By the middle of the week he was being a very naughty boy indeed, mouthy and dragging things around the house, barking and getting way obsessed about the squirrels (I think this needs separate work).

I was starting to get discouraged about my ability to get this big beast civilized- 'not enough time' the oldest excuse in the book!

But, by the end of the week, we were starting to get some good melting and it was actually possible to take the pups for a walk. I got Pro's flirt pole out for a workout. We're working on training every day at least for a little while. Thursday night Ziggy and I even got to do some obedience at the club. It's amazing what a good stress reliever dog training is! You really have to concentrate, and the rest of the junk in your brain has to move over for awhile.

Here is a picture of one of the few peaceful moments of the week:

Training Plan, week of Feb. 20th

• It has been awhile since I wrote out a training plan. It's easy to get lazy when the dog starts to act more like a regular dog, and life gets busy. But Pro still has a long way to go.
• Some kind of field trip every day- at least a walk, but try to fit in a couple of short trips to Petco etc.
• Work on all his training exercises, but especially self-control exercises like stay and leave it, in a new place every day.
• Start over with his headcollar desensitization- very slow and happy. I made the mistake of trying a walk with it on before getting him comfortable with shorter sessions.
• Continue with go to mat from a distance.
• Frisbee etc. in yard every day.

House manners- need tuneup!

On the furniture? Really? Actually I don't care if he gets on the furniture, Ziggy gets on the couch, but maybe his new people won't like it. Plus I feel like we need to ramp up his house manners a notch. We are working on  door manners- he tends to barge through doors like a truck, knocking anyone or anything aside. Not good. So now we are working on waiting for the ok, even if the door is open. We'll have to work on the same thing in the car, but right now he's so excited to get out that he can barely sit while his crate is opened, never mind wait. All in good time.

Another biggie is respecting Ziggy's personal space. Monday night, I think Pro knocked into Ziggy once too often, and a scuffle ensued- noise on both dogs' part, bloodless chomping on Ziggy's part. I don't want Ziggy to feel like he always has to defend himself against rude dogs in his own house, that is my job. So I'm verbally correcting Pro and making him wait if he tries to knock Ziggy aside to get to something.

Pittie Love Boy!

Life has been crazy so I haven't had time to post for awhile. Pro went to visit Noreen from Pittie Love Rescue, and is now officially a Pittie Love dog! He is on their website and facebook page. Being such a handsome boy, he has gotten many admiring comments, but it will take just the right fit for a new family. He is our boy for now.

Once the reality of him going to a new home sank in, I started to think about what skills he still needs work on. He is doing beautifully on his training. Work=attention and food, so it's all good as far as Pro is concerned. We'll need to turn his house manners up a notch, and his biggie is getting more comfortable in many more situations with other dogs.

That means lots of trips to Petco and Petsmart, continuing his Ruff Diamonds class, and any other way we can get out and about. For awhile I was so busy with my folks, and we were so buried in snow, that it really was hard to get any training or exercise in at all, never mind field trips. But things are easing up a bit in the 'life' department, so back to work with the boy.

Today we went to a little train-the-trainer session at Marjie's where practice dogs were needed. I took Ziggy and Pro, and Mark for an extra dog wrangler. Ziggy of course was a star- anything for chicken. Pro was initially pretty over the top with exitement, had a couple of little blow-ups with some barking and lunging (not aggressive, just nutball excited), but overall he was a trooper! He definitely transferred his work at Ruff D to this new situation, doing a beautiful settle and giving me lots of good attention. I was very happy with him overall.  We really need to find more opportunities like that to get him just working around other dogs.

Backdating

Tonight I have a little free time for a change, so I'm starting to put in older posts, from October through December, that were hand written in the training journal I've been keeping since Pro came. It could be that this process I've been documenting will be useful to other people trying to foster or rehab a dog, so I'll try to put it all online. The older posts won't have many pictures, since I wasn't thinking blog at that time. Probably will only be interesting to dog geeks or fans of Pro anyway!

Just now I was entering the December 13 post entitled 'Mainstreaming Plan', and it's amazing to me how far Pro has come. Tonight before I put him to bed, he was snoozing loose on the floor, Ziggy sleeping on the couch, Mark in his chair. Zzzz...