Sunday, April 17, 2011

Sorry I haven't written

This has been a really crazy week! I have senior child in high school so I am doing the crazy college stuff right now. I didn't see my four legged boys on Saturday as I was visiting a school. I did work with them on Thursday and Friday but those days were crazy at the shelter so I didn't get to use my "training" room.
Updates on what we are working on....
For Luke I have decided that he needs to have a default behavior of carrying a toy in his mouth when he is excited to see you. When I got to the shelter on Thursday he was out already and being walked by one of our volunteers. She knew I was working with Luke and asked if I wanted to take him. I asked her to continue her walk and I would meet her in the pen. When I got in the pen Luke proceeded to jump on me and grabbed my treat pouch, ripping it down the side (cheap pouch!). The walker said that he did not get too mouthy with her when she took him out and our resident trainer, upon my behest, took him out at another time and also said that he was not too mouthy. This leads me to believe that he does this with me because he is especially happy to see me as I am the one who works with him every day (or as close to every day as I can get!). I have a dog at home that can get very exuberant and over the top. It is very helpful to be able to tell him to go get his cat (a stuffed cat) at which point he does and returns shaking and tossing his stuffed cat. I am hoping this will help Luke in his future home.

I continue to struggle with Romin. He just wants his tennis ball and I have to compete for his attention. He is such a sweet dog and I am sure this obsession would go away once he had a family of his own. It is just all he has now that brings him any contentment. Some days I just toss in the towel and forget the formal training. We hang out, Romin chews on his tennis ball and I sit next to him giving him lots of rubs and love. He couldn't be happier. There is no schedule or definitive time line with training. You can have your plans and goals but ultimately the dog tells you when they are ready to work, or not, and that is just fine by me.

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