Dog Training

I’m finally starting to feel somewhat normal again, despite a few stray coughs and sniffles. But, I spent most of this week catching up on work that didn’t get done last week. (A massive house cleaning still awaits.) That means we did nearly no training this week. Instead, here are some observations about Lilly’s reaction to her best dog friend Katie meeting Ginko last week.
…

We continued to use public training moments as our proving ground this week. Here’s how our first hike of the season went.
…

We had a pretty mellow training week for a number of reasons, but Lilly did have two play dates with her pal Katie. And, in our ongoing study of canine body language, I noticed a few funny things. …

This week Lilly, the intrepid protagonist of our ongoing canine love story, went to a group pet obedience class with our big-picture trainer and mentor in all things relating to living with a fearful dog (Gigi Moss). Lilly and I stopped taking this drop-in class weekly in summer 2008 on advice of our dog behaviorist, who wanted us to do some hard-core behavior modification work instead. But, we’ve made enough progress that we’re picking up a group class once a month as time and temps allow. Suffice it to say, this was …

This week Lilly worked only on leash, unlike recent weeks, because it’s coyote mating season, and we’re seeing much more activity in the valley in recent days. Since more than likely a coyote would ignore us, I might assume Lilly would ignore it too, but I’d rather not take the chance. since even impeccibly trained dog’s like KB’s Labs get tempted. Lilly did, however, encounter some dogs this week — some on purpose, some not. Here’s how it went.
…