Weekly Training Update (Dec 7)
A couple interesting things happened this week, including a dog barreling straight at Lilly in class. Here’s the full update. …
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Weekly Training Update (Nov 30)
The biggest lesson I learned from Lilly this week is that you can’t assume any behavior is rock-solid on every single day. It’s all too easy to get complacent or to take our brilliant
dogs for granted. We cut back on treats. We verbally fuss on them less. We assume that they are the same minute to minute, day to day. And, that’s simply not the case. … -
Weekly Training Update (Nov 23)
Since it’s been 3 months since Lilly started taking an anti-depressant, I can probably stop naming Friday’s entry with a number. So suffice it to say that Fridays will continue to be a
big picture update on our progress and the week’s work. … -
Week Twelve: Anti-depressant update
I’m feeling fairly overwhelmed by all the things I should be training Lilly to do as part of our new behavior modification plan. Each little shaping event only takes a few minutes, but
it feels like a lot some days. This week, I tried a new coping strategy, where I only try to do 1-2 things other than the Relaxation Protocol. Here’s how things went. … -
Week Eleven: Anti-depressant update
Lilly went to our Sunday drop-in class for the first time in a few weeks. It was the first time we tried some of the strategies from the book “Control Unleashed” in a class setting.
There were a few challenges since there were many new dogs in the class, so it was a big group. Here’s a rundown of our efforts. … -
Week Ten: Anti-depressant update
Due to weather and travel schedules, Lilly hasn’t been to class in several weeks. So, we’ve been training on our own. Lilly did snark at some dogs on a walk. It’s the first time in a
long time, so I was a little bummed about that. But, the rest of her work went pretty well. Here’s an update, along with photos, of some of our breakthroughs. … -
Week Nine: Anti-depressant update
Once again, due to weather, we missed our Sunday class. It took place at the indoor facility, but since Lilly does not yet feel comfortable there, I’m not going to risk accidentally
making it a “bad” place in her eyes. So, we stayed home. We did, however, pop by on Saturday for a little solo work in the parking lot. Here’s how that went. … -
Week Eight: Anti-depressant update
Well, it’s already winter here at altitude in Colorado. Snow, crazy wind, the whole bit. We missed our usual Sunday class due to weather, but Lilly had a private lesson on Wednesday at
Gigi’s new indoor facility. We wanted to wait until Lilly’s brain was duly soaked with serotonin to introduce her to the new space. We wanted her to have full run of the place and see what happens.
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Week Seven: Anti-depressant update
Lilly and I had an interesting week. She did not snark at anyone or anything, but she did shut down a couple times in training. She also had one very scary encounter and responded
beautifully. Here’s what happened. … -
Week Six: Anti-depressant update (with photos)
We do not have class the last weekend of the month, so no formal training venue updates to report. However, as I mentioned earlier in the week, Lilly and I took a few adventures into
public settings instead, and we have a new training challenge at home … mules. …