Tag Archives: Training

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So proud I could bust!

These past couple days have really showed me Hilda’s real potential. Oh, sure, I knew she had loads of potential. I knew she was wicked smart. I knew she was a real people oriented dog. I knew she could really get this whole guide dog thing. I knew all of this was possible, but I didn’t know if I could harness it, unlock it, make potential reality. I hoped I could. I still hope I can. But these past couple days, Hilda’s showing me what she’s made of, and, yep, I believe the two of us might just pull this thing off.

We’re creeping up on seven months old, and Hilda’s gotten big. At least her growth is slowing down. Sharon tells me she probably won’t really get much taller, but I reckon she’s got a lot of filling out to do. I’ve had to let her harness out a little bit, both in the girth strap and in the martingale. I expect I’ll have to let it out more as we go. Mind you, mostly she wears it just so she gets used to wearing it, which she really is. She wiggles a bit while I’m putting it on, but no anxiety about the thing going over her head anyway.

We’ll start with yesterday’s trip. These past couple times, I’ve taken Hilda out on her own. They tell me Leno is sad, and indeed, he’s waiting at the door when we get back, but he seems to be all right about it. Certainly he takes my going out with Hilda better than Hilda takes my going out with Leno.

Yesterday was the first time Hilda rode the bus. She rode the bus like a pro! She sat up for most of the 10 or so minute ride both ways. She looked around with a lot of interest, but she pretty well stayed seated, only sliding into a lie down a couple times, and thankfully, mostly kept her nose (and tongue) off the floor. Anyone who rides the bus knows how scary the floors can sometimes be, and if not scary in fact, certainly scary enough in perception. But she sat up and rode the bus like she’d been doing it her whole life. This is a far cry from the restless, whining pup of just a couple months ago.

During our walk to the bank and otherwise, I guess she was looking around a lot, even behind her. This guy behind us even asked if he could pass us, explaining that he was what she was looking at. OK, no problem there guy. Still a bit of pulling on the leash, but at least, not a couple feet out in front of me pulling. I think we’re reaching a compromise on that.

In the bank, she learned about standing in line. Also, I learned that she must really like babies, because she seemed to be very interested in one that was way back by the front door of the bank. We didn’t go visit the baby, and it was gone by the time we had completed our business.

The theme for the day was diagonal street crossings. I made several of them. I’m not sure if I was thrown off by walking with a dog that wasn’t guiding, or just by, I don’t know, but I made several diagonal street crossings. One, I made, and I’m not sure at what point, but I ended up somehow across a usually busy street, no idea how or when, but the upshot of it was that I was a couple blocks out of my way somehow. Fortunately, a nice pedestrian (who saw us earlier during our rounds) got us straightened out, and we went to this deli corner market kind of place for lunch meat and milk and such as that. By the time we got there, the day was already heating up, and Hilda was getting tired. She was a trooper though! She was so well behaved in the store, even with all the meat in the cooler not far off nose level. She got nothing but compliments on her striking good looks and her behavior. Yes, I was sure to tell people she was in training, and that mostly the exercise was socialization and getting her used to being out and about. No problem from anyone with access, and like I said, I was sure to let people know she was not a fully trained service dog.

Surprisingly, I did get her to eventually drink water out of a plastic bag. As hot as she clearly was by then, I was surprised that it took as much convincing as it did. She did finally get the idea, however. Yes, I do have a collapsible water bowl around here somewhere…the one I usually use, which I kept a baggie dispenser in, has a bit of a worn threadbare spot, but I have another one…but I’ve misplaced it. Besides a collapsible water bowl then, what I really need is a fairly roomy pouch that would attach to the harness, to keep baggies and collapsible water bowl and what not in. I haven’t found just the right sort of thing yet, but someone suggested a small camera bag. That might do the trick.

A trip home on the bus, and a total of, well, lots of walking, left Hilda pretty tired. It left me pretty tired anyway, but I had another errand to do, which I did with Leno. I guess Hilda was energetic enough to complain about not going.

This evening’s trip was the usual walk to CVS. Again, lots of compliments from Hilda’s friends and admirers on her behavior and striking good looks. She only tried to go visit one guy in the pharmacy line. On the way to the store, I had her sort of guiding (I also used my cane) during some easy bits, and I wanted to see how she’d handle the crazy offset sidewalk at the corner. She almost nailed it! I was so proud!

On both yesterday’s trip and today’s, she growled a little bit at a dog. Yesterday, it was a dog we were passing on the sidewalk, I think. Today it was a little dog in a yard behind a fence. In both cases, she stopped growling at the other dog when I asked her to. Otherwise, any dogs we encountered, she breezed past. Well…except one across the street she was a bit fixated on, but we got past that one anyway.

In the store, her behavior was excellent. At the pharmacy counter, she sat quietly for most of our time, and she stood her front feet on the shelf by the counter…bottom shelf…just once, and got off when I asked. I mentioned her interest in one guy in line already. One time, when i was packing up my bag, she wandered off. I had been stepping on her leash, but apparently, not well enough, because she wandered off a few feet. She came right back when i called her though.

She was getting a bit restless and sniffy, and it was obvious she had to go, so out we went. She parked in, well, the parking lot, or anyway, a parking lot beside the store. Not in the store at all, she held on until we got out, and even then, she had to work herself up to it. Good girl!

She’s very definitely learning left and right. She turns left or right when I ask. She also is stopping at most curbs, and very reliably at definite curbs. Especially, and most importantly to my way of thinking, she stops at down curbs if they’re well defined. The blended ones, she mostly stops at, but there were one or two we had to work out, and I expect this will be true again. Still, she’s really carried over my stopping at steps and curbs. Even better, on the way home, I discovered that she really is targeting up curbs when we cross streets. I again noticed on quiet streets I was drifting. She, on the other hand, was very definitely trying to talk me into going the opposite way from the direction in which I was drifting. Following her, I hit the curb. Even the blended part of the curb in most cases. This was definitely an “Aha!” moment for me. She really is starting to understand this thing. I think we may well make a guide dog of her yet!

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Bathing, Grooming, And General Thoughts On Guide Dog Training

This might be mostly a repeat for Facebook, but the blog posts automagically. Sorry.

Oh, the torture! The horror! Brushing and nail trimming. Our little Beastie thinks she’s being tortured to hear her bark, whine, and carry on. We had brushing and nail trimming today, followed by a bath. Interestingly, no problem with the bath. She only tried to climb out of the tub a couple times, and actually stayed pretty still, all things considered, and didn’t shake soap all over me.

I’ve been thinking about training a bit lately. Specifically, the differences between most training and the training that a guide dog must have. I just posted this on Facebook:

My friend Tamara L. Jarvis describes Hilda thus: “Hilda sounds strong-willed but not rebellious. Just got her own mind.” Yep. I’d say that’s the perfect description of her personality, what say you Sharon Entwerfer Haus Gsd? Really, that’s exactly what you want in a guide, or I do: a dog that who has initiative, but will take direction. One major difference between training for a guide dog and most other training is that a working command isn’t a command that must be unconditionally obeyed. It’s more a request. The dog must evaluate the wisdom of obeying a command; thus, “Forward” doesn’t mean “Forward”. It means “Forward, if you think it’s a good idea and there isn’t some good reason why not”. Thus, I don’t expect instant obedience, because Hilda will need to maintain her initiative, but I *do* expect that my requests be acted upon unless there’s a good reason why not. It’s a fine line to walk. Moreover, a dog should be able to recover from a mistake, his or mine, and keep going. I may correct her for a working error that she didn’t actually make, for example, and it’s fine to tell your dog you’re sorry. Both members of the team had probably better be pretty resilient, I’m thinking.

I want to expand on that a little.

It seems to me that “intelligent disobedience”, as they call it in the biz, is the one thing that separates guide dog training from lots of other dog training. I won’t say all other dog training, because there may well be other areas in which intelligent disobedience is a desirable thing. But it’s definitely not something that a lot of training asks for, much less encourages. Yet, a guide dog can’t be very effective without it. Finding a dog that is resilient enough to recover from handler mistakes, strong-willed enough to disobey a directive, but still willing enough to take direction, may be a tall order, but it sure looks like that’s exactly what I’ve got, so far.

Jim Kutsch, the President of the Seeing Eye and another fellow I’m proud to call my friend, says that a guide dog must also have ” a sense of responsibility”. George Eustis, or perhaps Jack Humphrey, depending on which account you believe, put it another way. Paraphrasing, “Make no mistake. This dog does not belong to you. You belong to her.” That means that the dog will feel some responsibility to you for doing its job. Perhaps it sees that responsibility as keeping you safe or “looking out for you”. I don’t know. I don’t know how, or if, dogs process to that level, though I suspect they do. The guide dog who pushes its handler back from an oncoming truck, taking the impact himself, surely didn’t do so solely because it was doing what it was taught. Self preservation has to kick in at some point, right? Surely the dog knows that being hit by a bus is going to hurt some. Does Hilda have such a sense of responsibility? Will she? Not yet she doesn’t, I’m fairly sure, but she is, figuratively speaking, barely out of diapers. Will she? It seems that she has that potential, but we’ll never know until we know. Still, I’m going with “yes” until she lets me know, “Hey, I didn’t sign up for this!” Anyway, I’m pretty sure that one can’t train such a “sense of responsibility”.

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Oops, I forgot

I forgot something!

I finally found something Hilda is afraid of. Either that, or we’re starting a fear period already. I’m not even sure what set her off, but she’s afraid of the garage door. It’s a manual garage door. It’s usually closed, but it was open. Come to think of it, maybe she saw it close once and didn’t forget. Anyway. It was open, because I was grilling, and the grill is in there. I took her outside this afternoon and went to close it. She went running hell for leather, except, well, she only had four feet of leash, so she couldn’t get far. So eventually, when I couldn’t convince her to get within 6 feet or so of the thing, I tied her up so I could close it. She still wouldn’t go anywhere near it. Not for love nor money. I gave her string cheese near it, which helped. Then I threw treats at the garage door (closed), and she went to get those. I think maybe she’ll get over this fear pretty quickly.

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A Long Overdue Update

Wow. I didn’t realize I hadn’t written here in as long as I haven’t. One day blends into the next, and next thing you know, a month has passed.

Well, I think Hilda may well be taller than Leno now, and certainly at least 50 pounds. She’s getting a little bit of that alert/protective vibe going now, barking at people sometimes when they come to visit. She barked at the next door dog, but I think he may have barked at her first. She still wants to be everybody’s friend, and she’s starting to jump less high, and even sort of thinking about not jumping. Slow and steady progress.

We’ve had a few socialization outings. She’s getting pretty good about riding in the car, considering how little she’s been able to do it. We had lots of fun at a picnic, where she got to play with another dog and met lots of nice people and ignore food. She did get a hot dog, but she was allowed. I think she also lost her rabies tag and name tag at the picnic, so I have to see about getting a new rabies tag if possible. At least I do have her rabies paperwork in the folder. We also have gone to the drugstore a couple times, more on that later.

I’ve started putting the harness on her, not necessarily for working, but just to get her used to wearing it. Now, she even has stuck her head into it on her own. While I say it’s not for working, I have exposed her to working in ot. We’ve walked across the house, and she walks fast and enthusiastically across the house and down the walk in front of our house. She’s even stopping at the corner, and we’re reinforcing this on walks when we aren’t pretend guiding. She’s also still very good about stopping at the top and bottom of the stairs here at the house.

On one of these walks, I’ve determined that, indeed, she isn’t noise shy. The day before this, she didn’t react to all the war sounds and hurricane sounds in Forrest Gump, some of which played right over her head on the surround sound speakers. But anyway, we were at the corner. Leno was working, Hilda was walking on my right. We stopped at the corner, Hilda sat. We waited for the light to change. A truck zoomed past us pulling a rattly trailer behind it. Lots of noise, and Hilda didn’t move a muscle. There are fireworks going off now, and she’s in her crate for bedtime, and absolutely not a peep. Nothing. I tell you, this dog is solid.

I’ve decided I don’t like nylon training collars. Specifically, nylon slip collars, and most specifically, the nylon Snaparound Collar. The one I have is adjustable, which is great for a growing puppy, and not so great for action. But I think that the adjustable buckle isn’t the main beef I have with it, even if I got a fixed length, I think I’d have the same complaint…or at least, observation. You definitely don’t get the same sort of tactile feedback from a correction with a nylon slip collar as with a chain slip collar. You also don’t get a consistent action depending on which way you snap. If you snap the leash upwards, you get the best sort of reaction. Any other direction leads to less than satisfactory results, owing, I think, to the small size of the rings used and the flatness of the nylon. I have Hermsprenger toggle collars on order, but in the meantime, I’m using a slip collar I happened to have here. It’s a bit large, but I like its action better than i did the nylon one.

So. Our trips to the drugstore. She only tried to jump on a counter once. That was when I took her on her own with the cane. But she didn’t really try to jump on any people that trip. There were a couple of cool things that happened on yesterday’s trip though, and all of them on the way home. At this one street corner, Leno knew we’d be turning left, and he stopped me at a curb. Hilda tried to take me to the blended part of the curb though. She also sat at a couple curbs without being prompted. (This is something we’re doing to reinforce that stopping at curbs is a good thing to do.) I’m not sure if this going to the blended part of the curb was a coincidence, a distraction, or a conscious act on her part. She also sat nicely, or pretty nicely, to be petted by a couple of people we met. On the trip Monday, we walked past barking dogs without much fuss. Friday’s trip, however, saw Hilda try to turn around completely and try to go back towards a thing that interested her. We kept moving, and she got the idea pretty quickly that this wasn’t going to be a good idea.

Then, a funny thing happened. I’m not sure whether this was Leno being distracted, Leno not thinking about what he was doing, or Leno trying to impart a teachable moment, like, “If you do this, this is what happens”. He ran a couple of down curbs. No biggie, they were quiet side streets, but he ran them anyway, which he does only extremely rarely. When he ran the curbs, we did what we always do: we backed up a few steps and approached them again, and of course he did them perfectly. So. Was his mind wandering, or was he playing instructor? We’ll never know for sure, and perhaps thinking he might have done it on purpose is a bit towards anthropomorphizing. I’m not sure. I can’t say he definitely did, but I can’t say he categorically did not either.

I see more two dog trips, anyway, a thing that I wasn’t sure I’d see for a while yet with Hilda’s exuberance. Pretty exciting stuff.

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Just For Fun

Five months is probably a little early to start, or even contemplate, harness training. I mean, focus…what’s that? There isn’t any, really. OK, that’s a little unfair. In just the past month, Hilda has calmed down a lot. She can even sometimes walk past a cat without trying to pounce on it. She can even sort of sit and let Melanie pet her, but she does end up losing her cool. Even so, Melanie has been able to pet her a little bit, which could have never happened a month ago. She still wants to jump on people, especially new people. She also really wants to be out in front, a good thing for guiding, not so much if you want a dog to walk on a loose leash, which she’ll need to do some of the time. But she really is getting better with that, too. She also comes, some of the time, off leash. We’re working on that, too. Also, crate behavior when I’m gone is improving.

But back to the harness. Recall that I put the harness on just for fun. She’s worn it without the handle a few times, maybe an hour or so during several days. She tolerated having that put on pretty well, and didn’t seem to mind it on her while she hung around the house. Today, I put the harness on complete with handle, and, just for fun, we went for a walk. From the upstairs crate, we went to the stairs, and she stopped at the steps, just like she has been all along. She took a bit of encouragement to go down the stairs with me, and we walked across the house to the back door and out to park. Naturally, I didn’t expect anything like guiding, or paying any attention to me, but it was pretty cool nonetheless, because she really did keep moving quite a lot of the time. She didn’t take a lot of encouragement to move when she would stop to sniff or for whatever reason. We even made it down the driveway and a couple houses down the block. Turning around to go home was another matter, as she wanted to just kind of go everywhere, jump on the neighbor, sniff the front lawn of the neighbor’s house, all very puppy-like and, hey, I don’t wanna go home!

Still, it was pretty cool to have this puppy walking in harness, even if not in actual fact doing much. I definitely see some awesome potential here though.

Hey, if I’m living right, there will be a picture of Hilda in harness, taken a few days before her five-month birthday. Or whatever you’d call that. Hilda in harness nearly 5 months

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A Long Walk, And Things We’re Doing

We continue to make progress. It’s amazing how much difference a couple weeks make.

First, I want to say that Hilda is at least 40 pounds now, according to my scale and me carrying her on it. My tape measure also says she’s 21 inches at the shoulder. That’s got to be pretty close, even if I couldn’t exactly get her to stand still for very long.

We’ve had fewer parking accidents in the crate. I think, on the whole, she’s getting the idea, because mostly, when she has one, I can take her out and she still has more to do. Melanie also tells me that she doesn’t bark constantly when I leave her. There is actually some quiet time in between sometimes.

Last week, I had to leave Hilda with a friend to take Alena to an appointment out of town. No problem. Or, as Melanie’s dad says, “What? You’re leaving?” I think she might maybe want to trade me in for Heidi and Kaitlyn and Cheyenne. Seems she had a good time and was well worn out when she came home.

I have actually been able to leave her lying down long enough to walk around the kitchen and do stuff without having to put her in the crate. She stayed put! This would have never happened just a couple weeks ago. Also, she’s been having a good time running around and playing with the other dogs a bit during the day, off leash. We still have to work on the recall thing a lot, but that’s OK.

Other useful things we’re working on:

Not rushing through doors. I can now stand at a door, open the door, and mostly, she won’t go through the door until I do. Not rushing through doors is a good thing. Of course, we haven’t tried it off leash, but on leash, she’s doing great at standing at the door.

Very useful: I’m prompting “Upstairs”, and teaching her to just stop at the bottom of the stairs, with her front paws on the first step. Sometimes she puts her paws on the second step instead, but generally, she does stop on the first. This is really great, because when a guide dog stops at steps and curbs, they stop with front paws on the step or curb. Great for getting an idea of the height of the step, not to mention knowing a step is there in the first place. When I prompt “Downstairs”, I want her to stop at the steps, and sit just to reinforce that yes, this is a place to stop. She stops, and mostly she sits, too. Huge!

While she is not walking completely on a loose leash, she’s doing a lot better. She’s doing enough better that for the first time, we took a long walk today down to the drugstore. It’s like a mile and a half round trip, and only at the last couple blocks did she start to get tired. I could tell, because she was pulling more and listening to me less. But even then, if I gave the full length of the leash, she generally didn’t get too awfully far ahead of me. Thing is though, she did pull a little, and gave me more tension than I ultimately want, but in general, she stayed with me mostly, if a bit further to the left than I’d prefer. But this gave us a chance to work at stopping at curbs, too. I wanted to introduce one of the ladies at the drugstore to her, as she was asking. I think Hilda was a hit. Bonus, we met a baby on the way back. Hilda had only met one or two other babies and toddlers since I got her, but she didn’t seem put out or bothered by them at all. In fact, she was very excited to see the baby and wanted to make friends with her, just as much as she does with everyone else she ever meets. I’d really like to hang out around the elementary school when school is letting out sometime, too. Anyway, excellent stuff going on with that. All progress is good progress.

Just for fun, I tried putting one of the nylon harnesses on Hilda, at its smallest settings. It’s just a little bit too big for her, but not by a whole lot. I don’t think it’s going to be very long at all before she can wear it around and start getting used to it. Without the handle, of course.

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Where’d the time go?

What happened? It was just last week yesterday.

We did not go to the final puppy class. That’s because Hilda got some very loose stools. I couldn’t pick some of them up at all. Fortunately, by Saturday and skipping one meal, and a couple of half meals, she got back to normal. But the potential for something unfortunate in the back of a cab or an Uber kept us home. I expect it was OK, and I’m not terribly heartbroken that Hilda did not get her puppy kindergarten diploma. Certificate. Graduation…thingy.

Teething is officially a thing. She’s lost four teeth, at least four that I’ve caught, but there sure seem to be lots of bigger teeth than that. Not sure how long all 42 will take to come in, but it’s definitely happening.

Monday’s weigh in at the vet puts Hilda at 35 pounds. I’d measure her, but she doesn’t stand still long enough, and she might try to eat the tape measure. She’s all legs though, and getting really close to Leno in height. Admittedly, Leno is small for a lab, but still. Anyway, all the shots, including lime vaccine, are done now. We want to stay away from the vet until spaying time in several months. I plan to have her go through her first heat cycle and spay after.

Housebreaking is going all right. We’ve had fewer in-crate accidents, and none on the carpet, I don’t think. There’s been at least one #2. But this is seriously improvement. Also, less complaining at being left alone. That’s difficult, as everyone knows, they see a setup a mile off. Still, less is better, and some of it is likely barking at the cat(s). Speaking of, I’m still waiting for the cats to seriously smack her down a time or two. I think Jasper has at least once, but they definitely need to give her a couple more lessons. She hasn’t actually hurt them, but boy howdy can she slobber when she’s chewing on their ears/necks. Besides the cats, she likes to stalk the broom when someone is sweeping. She also likes to carry around socks or towels, but especially socks when she finds them. I think maybe fetch could be a thing for her.

Walking on a loose leash is still a work in progress, though there’s definitely improvement here, too. She’ll even sometimes walk past a cat without pulling to get at the cat. That’s kind of huge.

She’s getting a little bit of time to run around the house. Not much, and only after I’m sure she’s very empty. Recall is something that will need work. “Leave it” is, believe it or not, something that’s going pretty well. Si and down are very reliable, and stand is only starting to be understood. “Rest” (AKA “stay”) is…challenging, though waiting at doorways is pretty good, though not exactly solid yet. One other thing that I’m getting her to do is to put her front paws on the first step going upstairs. This is a little bit challenging, because she wants to put her feet on the second step instead. Still when she’s on leash, she does stop at the bottom or top of the steps before we go up or down. That really is huge.

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This week, regression, progress

Regression and progress? You bet!

First, I observed last week, on Facebook after I posted, that the puppy class trainer is one of those “We don’t use the word ‘dominant’ in this class” people. Dominance theory/wolf pack theory has been scientifically disproved. Which just goes to show that anything can be misinterpreted, including the words “dominant”, “leadership”, “pack”, etc. etc. But enough of that. I have my own opinions on that. Anyway, we don’t use the rod “dominant” but “a bit of a bully” is OK? Seems to me that “dominant” would perhaps have been more accurate. Just sayin’.

Starting backwards and working back, I guess. Puppy class, we finally, finally, got teaching “Leave it”, which is, IMO, kind of important. I actually like the way we did that, as in, “Your dog should never get the thing which you’re telling/teaching him to leave alone”. So she doesn’t like the cookie on the nose thing, and “Wait” might be more appropriate for a “You don’t get that thing until I tell you”. Whereas, “Leave it” would be for gross, dangerous, or just off limits things that you don’t want pup getting the idea he may get eventually. I think the lightbulb is starting to go off on this for her, but we’re just starting with it. It involves two treats: one that the dog has to eventually ignore, and another to reward for ignoring. I wonder if it makes a difference if the treats are the same thing or not? I think I may experiment with that.

One thing, OK, another thing, we really need to work on is riding in the car. Hilda seems to be a bit anxious about it. She gets in OK, or doesn’t fuss about being put in. But as we start to move, she is very restless. She whines and won’t stay still, wanting to climb up into my lap, or else somewhere at any rate, which is sometimes my lap. I’m really not sure how to get her more comfortable with this, apart from just doing it…I mean…I can’t exactly just take her for a car ride, or do it the usual way with brief exposures and going up and down the driveway and all that whenever I like, can I? But this is kind of an important thing for eventually.

We’ve got a pretty reliable sit and a nearly as reliable down now, which is fantastic. She’s even coming back more often when I call her if I drop her leash. The formal “Come”, dog at my left and sitting, is coming along slowly but surely, and walking on a loose leash is coming along even more slowly. Once I get her good at walking on a loose leash, I can start to see about walking her with Leno, a thing which has, so far, been kind of a disastrophe.

The regression? That’s a thing which Melanie I think wanted to kill me over. Last week, I had to run an errand, so I put the Beast in the crate upstairs, where she sleeps. It was morning, she had chew toys but not the food ball, I don’t think, because she had eaten not very long before. (Anyway, that only seems to help for a little bit.) Long story interesting, i was gone about two hours. And apparently, Hilda made her displeasure known by barking. Loudly. Constantly. For the whole two hours. With only brief, as in a couple minutes, breaks occasionally. However, she apparently stopped when I was about five minutes from home. Some would say this is proof positive of the psychic connection between humans and their critters. I leave that bit of speculation to you. Later in the week though, I had another thing to do, and this appeared to have been less of an issue again.

BTW, for those keeping score, according to the scale at home, that is, weighing me by myself and then e carrying Hilda, she weighs about 33 pounds. Sharon’s Freida is a couple pounds heavier. But she’s growing steadily, looks like she gains five pounds every couple weeks. Fortunately, this will slow down. Some day. She’s definitely going to be bigger than Leno though, she’s catching up to him in height already.

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More This Week, Stuff We’reWorking On…

This week has been kind of a bitch, with apologies to Hilda and others, but none of it has really been Hilda’s goings-on, believe it or not. With Hilda, things have been going pretty well. A few accidents in the house, mostly from excitement or playing too hard, but definite improvement in that area.

I forgot to mention that we’ve also been working on taking treats more gently. As in, yes, you get a treat, no that treat is not my fingers, which I’d like to keep, thanks. That’s all good now, and rarely does she forget anymore. My fingers are happy about that.

I met the new vet this week, and she says Hilda’s looking good. She’s 28 pounds, and, of course, still growing. Heck, I think she’s catching up to Leno in height. One more limes vaccination and we’re done for a little while until spaying time.

She’s walking on leash without so much pulling, especially on the back ramp. She hasn’t quite generalized this, however, but I now know that yes, she is capable of walking on a loose leash. We’re also working on a more formal “Come”, where she sits at my left side when called. Different from the more informal “Here!”, which means just sort of come over near me somewhere. A bit like the difference between “Stay” (Rest) and “Wait”, which is the thing we talked about in puppy class, along with going through the tunnel, thus working on recall and going through hula hoops and things. Oh, and we also worked on “Go to your mat”. Well, talked about it, and showed practical applications.

I’m thinking that Hilda must learn things but then not do them unless she sees a point to them. Hard to explain why I think this, but it’s like, “Oh…you want me to do what? Why? What’s the point? Where is the practical application in this, if i do this strange thing you’re asking of me?” Could be all wrong, of course.

I also learned that Hilda is “a bit of a bully”. (OK…so the instructor said that, yet also that she isn’t a rotten dog, after I called her a rotten dog once in jest, because I say all my dogs are rotten and none of them take it personally.) This is because she apparently was going after the dog in class who is the shyest/most fearful or nervous. Well, she just never learned to not do that. Well…OK…I guess so, since all her littermates are all pretty confident and self-assured. I really don’t think she means to be a bully, and maybe I sound like the kid who steals your lunch money’s parent now. Don’t think so though. But yes, we definitely need to tone her lunging and jumping down some, and I’ve got no argument there. I mean, there are the cats, who I’m sure will some day like to not have their ears chewed on.

Lots to work on. Besides all that other stuff, there’s riding in the car. She’s whiny and restless. Of course, she doesn’t like to sit still for long under the best of circumstances, but she thankfully hasn’t been carsick or anything like that, and she doesn’t shy away from riding in the car. Still, another thing, and a thing that won’t be as easy to tackle really.

Anyway, of course there’s lots to do, but it all at least seems eventually manageable. She isn’t quite as obsessive about the cats, for example. So, yeah, things are coming along, a thing for which I am very grateful.

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A New Week, Progress, Thoughts

There’s not a whole lot to talk about in regard to training really. We’re going to start working on walking without pulling on the leash. As puppy class teacher says, a tedious process, but Hilda’s a quick study. Well, I really think that she learns like this. She won’t get something, quite. For a while. Then one day, it clicks.

With the crate and house accidents, there’s been a lot of improvement, though more tweaking is needed on my part. She actually had a #2 on Wednesday, but that was all on me, as usual. It was an off day with an off schedule. I’m not sure what to think of the Beast’s tidiness. She cleans up after herself. Whichever kind of elimination happens. It’s kind of gross. I’d never heard of pups licking up their own urine before, but this one does, if she does it in her crate and I don’t catch it. (Schlurp…schlurp…uh oh, I think she just went…) But there have been far fewer this week than last. I think there will be fewer yet once she decides not to hold onto her bladder. See, I think she’s going outside, starting to park, the second she gets a “Yes, good girl!”, she stops. Even if she’s not finished, but the pressure’s at least off, to her mind, and hey, she’s agood girl and gets a treat! Woohoo!!!! OK, so I’m thinking I need to hold off on the praise until after she gets up on her own, in spite of what all the experts say about “Catch her while she’s going and mark that”. We’ll see, but I think that’s what’s going on with that, anyway.

Poor Hilda wants to make friends with Melanie so badly. But she’s too exuberant, Melanie gets nervous, and no connection happens. We almost had a kind of disaster when Hilda got too close, with too much excitement, and pulled on an IV tube stuck in Melanie’s medport. Could have been a really really huge problem, but it fortunately was not. Other than that, it’s just been lots of jumping, friendly (though nervous making) mouthing…she’s really very friendly and just wants to make friends with everyone. She doesn’t really know quite how to do it on human terms though, so we need to work on that.

Also, yep, I guess she’s decided I belong to her. As in this excerpt from “Dogs Against Darkness”:

“Will she growl and bite? Is that what you mean?”
“Heavens no. It isn’t that she will dislike you. She will
just be indifferent. She won’t be interested in guiding you
because you don’t mean a thing in her young life. Win her
affection and then you will win her.”
It sounded like a large order to Morris. “How long will
that take?”
“That depends on you. But remember this always. She isn’t
your dog. She doesn’t belong to you. You belong to her!”

Friday night, I made a sort of late run to the Circle K (where strange things are afoot, of course). The radio scanner was on, and on the way, I was chatting with a friend of mine in San Antonio on the ham radio. Melanie told me that Hilda was pretty quiet most of the time, except when she heard me. Then she set up a racket. I don’t know. Hey, how’d he get in that box? Where is he anyway?

I’m just amazed at how big she’s getting, and how she’s growing up and learning. I’d really better be on my toes and stay a step ahead of her, else I’m going to be in some kind of trouble.