"All-Positive Monday 11" - Introduction To The Square, Memorial Day Dinner | Exploits of an Amateur Dog Trainer: Blog Edition

Translate To Your Language

Monday, May 30, 2011

"All-Positive Monday 11" - Introduction To The Square, Memorial Day Dinner

Training today was cut short/interrupted by Memorial Day stuff and whatnot, but we did get some time in to introduce the square (cuadrado) - with the square being a white square pillow.

At first, he had a few problems figuring things out, probably because I might have been saying the word the same way as it's a little "tongue twisting" but I did get it down, and it helped him, though I think he was still having some issues figuring out what exactly it was he was supposed to touch. I wonder if this is another color issue.

What started getting some success was standing up the pillow against the bed, maybe a change in the background or perhaps better able for him to see it. What ever the case, I was getting the trademark charging at the object and his usual enthusiasm. We got into a rhythm after that, doing the usual moving it around to make him find it in different places. Again, there was some initial difficulty with this (much like with the circle), but he started looking around for the object and then finding and touching it.

Further work was cut short by the holiday festivities - and one area Wally is still apprehensive is when strangers want to interact with him. With all the scents of the food around, though, he was more "friendly" (mostly curious, if not outright nosy, about the scents/food) so at least he wasn't as uptight as usual. I sneaked him some bits of food to reward him when he did show interest in someone (or their food), hopefully taking some advantage of the situation.

He spent a lot of time sniffing around and looking at me (as if I was going to make them give him food or something!), and he was getting all excited, so I took him out and played around with him and had some fun.

For dinner, he got some shreds of barbecue ribs and some pasta salad. He devoured it in no time and was rubbing around on the floor like he does when he loves his food (or his super happy to get it, like when he's super hungry), and then started sniffing at my food, but being good - he didn't try to get it or anything of that sort, he just sat and stared at me, then lied down and kept staring.

And now, he's already sleep. All the activity of the day must have worn him out!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Link to your site through your profile so that your user name leads to your site - please do not include links to your site in the comments - and only put dog training links in the comment to keep things on topic.