Poor Abby had a bit of a boring day today. I was booked for most of the day with lessons. I opted to only work her twice and give her some extra play time instead of her usual schedule because she had to spend so much time cooped up. She enjoyed bouncing and racing around with Betty and Ace in the afternoon and the workouts we did have were pretty stellar. The only mistake she made was a few times she would lay down when told to Sit. Easily corrected and she even acted like she felt silly for the mistake. 
As her time with us draws to a close I look back on her at 11 weeks old in Puppy Preschool. It is at times easy to forget that just a short time ago she was frustrating her people with a puppy biting habit. She really has become a wonderful dog in just a few short months. However she remains a total goofball and a Golden (ie. sweet, affectionate, manipulative, and smart with just a pinch of klutz mixed in there). You can't look at her without smiling. 

Well Betty goes home early tomorrow morning. She has been an absolute delight to have around and I am proud of how far she has come. She is still Betty, that's for sure! But she has some self control and restraint. Her electronic collar helps her make good decisions.
 We made good strides with the bike but she isn't there just yet. She will do okay and then the bike will move a certain way and it will trigger a panic attack. I will tell her mom how best to help her through these. The worst thing to do is comfort her. I let her panic and then I encourage her to walk next to the bike or to sniff it and then I will praise her. Timing us key for not letting her fear problem get worse.
 Ace will miss this girl. She really enjoyed bossing him around all week and I am afraid he is nursing a bit of a soft spot for her. He always falls for the ones that will tell him what to do. 
Anyway, Betty will be missed but she will be very excited to go home and be with her pack. She has had fun this week and never objected to her kennel but she would prefer to be inside with her people, that's for sure. 

Today was all about house manners. We practiced coming when called while in the house and staying on Placemat. She likes to only do Place halfway and lay down wherever she is instead of on her mat. Even if she tries to become dead weight and I have to physically drag her onto her mat I make sure she has two feet on her bed all the time. Most of the time she isn't confused about anything when this happens, she is just being silly. Once on her bed she will happily stay there for hours. 
Her obedience, while still plagued with moments of the Silly Wiggles, is solid and she wants nothing but approval from her handler. I may suggest she wear her e-collar in the house to allow for corrections when she gets silly and tries to play tag when it isn't appropriate. She is a good girl and very much a Golden. 

Betty has made so much progress this week. We are now well into the "upkeep" stage of this board and train and this is the stage her family will need to continue after she goes home. She will need firm rules in the house and fair discipline. She is responsive to tone of voice and she needs to be reassured when she gets the answer right. She does not need lavish praise, though she likes it, to understand she is making good decisions. I can leave her on Place and walk around the house and even have people come in the door without Betty getting up to follow me. 
Her obedience is fine. She knows her commands and while she will toe the line sometimes she values praise enough that she really doesn't blow me off very much. 
She is showing very little fear of my other dogs and would play chase with Ace and Abby all day if I let her. Kylie is still a little intimidating but Betty has even initiated play with her. Betty does not share well but the other dogs  seem yo know there is nothing behind her bluffs when she is guarding or trying to steal a favorite toy or stick. 
We are simply practicing and working more with the bike tomorrow. She will have some extra down time because I am booked solid with lessons until the afternoon. Her go-home video is shot and all we need are glamour shots for the website yearbook. Good job, Betty!

Abby, Abby, Abby, such a sweet stinker you are. Today Abby decided she has never been trained. I am sure it is just the warm weather but this goofy Golden took her shenanigans to the next level today with trying to run around instead of Come, flopping down dramatically instead of sitting, Heel was very silly with lots of bouncing and prancing.
I let her skip one work out and had Ace chase her around the yard and really tucker her out. Lots of bounding and leaping and wrestling was just what the trainer ordered because her last workout of the day was very smooth and I was impressed with her.
Sometimes a Golden just has to be silly, I guess, and really in the grand scheme of dog misbehavior, this was small potatoes. But tomorrow we are going to back to the workouts to make sure she doesn't think that every day is play time.
Placemat is going very well, sometimes she still tries to ooze off of her mat but she is trying that less and less as the days go by. She will always be a goofball and will probably be toeing the line for many years to come but she wants to do the right thing and enjoys being praised so I doubt there is a lot of heart behind her little quirks. She is just trying to liven things up and lighten the mood in the only way she knows how.

Phew, the last few days have been hard on poor Betty. Her obedience is going fine and so we started on conquering an irrational fear of hers, bicycles.
My favorite way to exercise one or a group of dogs is with a bike. I have bad knees and so running for long distances is not something I can easily do. Biking allows a low impact exercise for me and a good hard run or long jog for the dog. Betty's owner would like to bike with her as well but Betty must over come a crippling fear of bikes first.
This all started a few days ago when we simply brought a bike out while she was working. Immediately we saw bucking, skirting, and even some rolling (she was on a physical leash so as to not allow her to reward herself by running away). We eventually got her to approach the bike and quickly sniff the wheel. Then we asked her to walk next to the bike in a straight line. After some more bucking and objecting she realized that she had no other choice but to walk. She walked. She hated it, but she walked like a lady and did not object.
She was able to go for a short ride yesterday, just down the driveway and back but she did not enjoy it and once the bike stopped and the front wheel slipped and turned towards her she was afraid again so we had to resniff the tire and realize that it isn't scary.
Today she went for another short ride again, but has not made much progress in her fear. I walked her again next to the bike today for probably ten minutes trying to get her to ease up and walk nicely but every once awhile she would still panic and buck or skirt around the bike. I now have a bike leaned against her kennel door to encourage her to approach it on her own. This is a form of flushing (forcing a dog to deal with their fear) similar to that of putting the scary thing in the kennel with the dog. I've done this before other objects and it has helped a little.
I am not admitting defeat but this is one panicky fear issue we are dealing with. More work on it tomorrow.
On a happier note, almost everything else with Betty is going so well. She is a joy to have around and she is truly enjoying Placemat. She has calmed down a bit while she has been here as well and has more self restraint.

Abby is so sweet. She is doing just fine. Her obedience is still accented with a lot of goofiness but she does it. She gets very wiggly over Down but goes down after a correction. 
She stayed on Place for an hour today and only needed two corrections. One in the very beginning and one after about 15 minutes. After that she pouted and help her place. We so enjoy having her here. She is one special girl and a happy worker. 

Betty is doing so well. She tries very hard to hold her commands and restrain herself from bouncing everywhere. This sometimes means quivering with anticipation but she is, at least, staying put. She now allows my to put her into a Down or (to a lesser extent) a Sit and then I can walk across the yard. I have not yet experimented with going out of sight but will be doing that soon. I -have- been able to leave the room while she is on Placemat and she stays put. Even if someone comes to the door! Though, admittedly, there is definitely more quivering when this happens. 
Today Betty was my helper dog during my lessons. She was nervous about the strange dogs, especially when they barked at her, but she did really well with all of her commands. It was like she was a real pro. 
Tomorrow we are working more on all of her obedience and getting her some more self restraint and practice with her new obedient life style. 

Betty is off leash now! At least for play time. She very much enjoys the freedom to bounce and chase the other dogs. She still gets nervous when the tables turn and she is the one being chased but when she gets scared she runs to me.

I still am using a leash for some obedience workouts to help guide her when she gets confused. Like most intelligent animals it is frustrating for her to get corrected when she does not understand te question. So I use the leash to help guide her through it if she gets stuck. Where she gets stuck most is with Implied Stay. She really thinks that her work is done as soon as she complies with the command. She does not understand that she needs to restrain herself and stay put when given a command.

We will work more tomorrow but she will have a little bit of extra down time. I have church in the morning and in the evening I will be busy but most of the day I will be free to work with the pups. She is a good girl and is doing wonderfully for day 2. Go Betty!!

There won't be a blog post tomorrow because it is Sunday.

Abby did a good job today. She is very happy to work and loves being outside. She did most if her commands just fine, got a little wiggly over Sit. She has fallen right back into the old routine when it comes to her radius training. She happily runs with Ace or Betty but stops herself, with no prompting and comes back to check on me periodically.

We did not work on Placemat today. That is in the plan for tomorrow. Tomorrow might be a bit of a boring day for her as I have church in the morning and an obligation in the evening but the bulk of the daytime will be for them so they will get their exercise and a little bit of work done.

There won't be a blog post tomorrow because it is Sunday.