Teddy loving his placemat
There's one in every board and train; one day during which the dog decides to be an argumentative little toddler. Usually it is after the first few days as the dog calms down and starts feeling comfortable. Today was that day for our friend Teddy. Our first workout was, to put it simply, not good. He lagged behind and wouldn't Heel properly. Whenever I told him to Down he would go temporarily deaf and pointedly stare in the other direction. He was pouty and back talking (lightly biting the leash, trying to dart away from me whenever he needed a correction) throughout the entire workout. Because he was being such a snot, the workout ended up lasting a bit longer than it normally would have. I would have been doing us a disservice to allow him to win and dictate when I ended the workout. In the end, he was exhausted but I had him Heeling nicely and I got one good Down out of him. I let him take a break while I got ready for the second workout.
After the break we geared up for a different kind of workout. Instead of doing the same old stuff we've been working on for days I was going to introduce a new thing. We dedicated the entire second workout of the day to the Place command. In order to teach Place it is necessary to use the Heel/Autosit command but because we were doing a new thing he was happy to trot along nicely and was happy to do the new thing. He picked up the Place command in under 10 minutes and, seeing as he was still tired from this mornings first workout, he was happy to lay down on it and stay put. This gave me the opportunity to praise him early on. Moods were better all around after the second workout.
I let him take a long break in the middle of the day and he slept for around 2 hours. We took our exercise walk and I integrated another workout into the last half. Everything we did, Heel/Autosit, Down at the Side, Down from the Front, he did well. Even his recall was better (he still isn't sitting reliably when he gets to me but he is no longer just walking right by me). He was in a much more cooperative mood in the afternoon and I was even able to do some hands free Heeling with the leash draped over my shoulders.
Tomorrow I anticipate a good work day. Usually the day after the dreaded Day of Arguments is very productive. We are now simply working on Heeling with a stroller and cleaning up all the skills I know he has. I am hoping to give him 4 workouts tomorrow instead of his normal 3. He has been getting bored and I think his attention span is getting stronger. Even though he was a problem-child this morning I feel like this was actually one of our more productive days so far. It is good for him to push the training and to realize that A. it is not the end of the world to lay down when told to and B. that he really doesn't have a choice in the matter anyway. His mood was much better after his nap.
After the break we geared up for a different kind of workout. Instead of doing the same old stuff we've been working on for days I was going to introduce a new thing. We dedicated the entire second workout of the day to the Place command. In order to teach Place it is necessary to use the Heel/Autosit command but because we were doing a new thing he was happy to trot along nicely and was happy to do the new thing. He picked up the Place command in under 10 minutes and, seeing as he was still tired from this mornings first workout, he was happy to lay down on it and stay put. This gave me the opportunity to praise him early on. Moods were better all around after the second workout.
I let him take a long break in the middle of the day and he slept for around 2 hours. We took our exercise walk and I integrated another workout into the last half. Everything we did, Heel/Autosit, Down at the Side, Down from the Front, he did well. Even his recall was better (he still isn't sitting reliably when he gets to me but he is no longer just walking right by me). He was in a much more cooperative mood in the afternoon and I was even able to do some hands free Heeling with the leash draped over my shoulders.
Tomorrow I anticipate a good work day. Usually the day after the dreaded Day of Arguments is very productive. We are now simply working on Heeling with a stroller and cleaning up all the skills I know he has. I am hoping to give him 4 workouts tomorrow instead of his normal 3. He has been getting bored and I think his attention span is getting stronger. Even though he was a problem-child this morning I feel like this was actually one of our more productive days so far. It is good for him to push the training and to realize that A. it is not the end of the world to lay down when told to and B. that he really doesn't have a choice in the matter anyway. His mood was much better after his nap.
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