Dogs on Drugs

Lilly and I had our first training date this weekend with another team using Leslie McDevitt’s “Control Unleashed” book as a training strategy. Here’s how it went. …

We ventured to a new pedestrian- and super-dog-friendly shopping district for this week’s class. Let’s just say it was an exercise in constant Sudden Environmental Changes (visual,
auditory, and otherwise).
…

Because I’m juggling about a dozen work deadlines right now, Lilly and I haven’t been training much … just playing. We even bundled up and took a walk or two this week on days that weren’t just miserably cold. She’s been feeling really cooped up, so I owe her some outings. BUT, we’re still working…

Last Sunday as a surprisingly nice day up here in the hills, so Lilly and I packed ourselves up and went to class. Sadly, it was actually kind of chilly in town, and things didn’t go particularly well. Even though Lilly did great at the location last time, the higher-than-usual number of dogs Lilly doesn’t…

Lilly and I skipped class this week, but I did take her into town last Saturday to run errands with me. Her prize for being such a trooper was a nice walk down, even though it was
pretty chilly. Tom was also out running around and happened to drive by us while we were on our walk. He whipped into the lot where we always park and waited on a bench to surprise Lilly. And, boy,
was she surprised!
…

Along with the ups and downs of our usual training, Lilly had one agility-like victory this week. Happy dance with me, will you? …

We haven’t been in class in a few weeks due to weather and the holidays, but this week I continued working on LEAVE IT since that’s an important prerequisite for a whiplash turn recall,
which I’ll start trying to train soon. I also made a more specific attempt to teach the Give Me a Break game from Leslie McDevitt’s book “Control Unleashed.” Essentially, it’s meant to build
excitement for a particular behavior.
…

Because of the holiday and because it’s been freezing-frickin cold, we didn’t do much training this week. We even skipped class last Sunday — mostly because I had some pre-holiday
crabbiness. I didn’t think it was fair to take Lilly to class when my patience was running so thin. Plus, class was slated for a busy pedestrian mall 2 days before xmas, which takes an already scary
environment for Lilly into another realm, and I just wasn’t up to it. …

This week’s class took place at a different dog park at the very north edge of Boulder. It’s a nice, pretty new one with 3 fenced areas (one for big dogs, one for not-so-big dogs, one
for small dogs). Our group used the not-so-big one since it was empty. Lilly did grumble once at a dog that blew off his recall and began bounding around, but the real wake-up call was her LEAVE IT
work. Those duck treats were just too much for her. …

This week’s Sunday class took place in and around Whole Pets, a specialty pet store located (of course) near Whole Foods. I had hoped to tell you that all this relaxation training paid
off, but I can’t. There was too much noise and movement for Lilly’s delicate sensibilities. During the hour-long class, she relaxed for maybe 15 minutes of it. Mostly, she just freaked out and blew
me off. …