Not so much happening these days, so we’re combining reports.

Social

Fenris is spending the weekend at the boarding kennel, in the hopes it will prepare us all for a longer stay over Christmas. The vet and the therapist thought it was a great idea – the kennel warned us it might be a) too short for him to get really comfortable and b) if it was negative that it could get compounded. We called in Sunday evening, and since he was starting to get into the routine and become familiar with the place, we decided he can stay until Tuesday morning to make sure he gets into the mental space he needs to be. In the meantime I’m doing housework and baking for Christmas. And missing my little lump of nuisance.

The coming week involves both his parents taking him to the Obedience course to practice stuff, and his old babysitter coming out to visit us during the weekend. The guest says he is looking forward to meeting a chip-castrated F that will greet him happily – without humping…

Steps to Success

Relax 2 – 30+30+30 seconds

Handling 2 – working the comb around his face, and on the ruff behind his front paws (less pleased with)

The coming week will probably focus on Lazy Leash, Handling, and maybe some Zen with toy.

Awesome Obedience

Position Changes – Down-Stand is like lunges for a dog. Hard work, but he’s a strong, good boi. His stands are actually getting pretty good.

Heeling – Another breakthrough (although only another dog nerd would think so); we have upgraded his dangly squeaky toy from “please don’t eat it”/”if I can’t eat it I don’t want it” to “wow – awesome play reward!”, with a much more reliable Get It/Tug/Thankyou process. This means I can finally move from the calming treat rewards, to energetic toy rewards, and expect that energy to start infusing his heeling behaviours.

Both having it in a pocket and pulling out to reward – and having it lying on the floor and cuing Get It for reward.

Not really sure how we managed this – maybe it was me giving up on trying to keep it exclusive AND trying to keep it un-eaten. Once he got to play/eat to his hearts delight, he moved on to “Hey, mum! Playing together is even more fun than me eating this on my own!”

The coming week – still working on the Down <-> Stand loop.

Other stuff

Starting to get husband working on marker words, focus games and such.

The horrid weather, with slippery, rainy ice on Tuesday morning, inspired me to drag out the cavaletti sticks. Fenris had fun! Did another session later in the week, with two poles further apart, to work on more extended movement.

Project buttons: Less random clicking, it seems. Either he’s out-buttoned, or he’s starting to get it.