We woke up this morning to it being very cold outside - 14 degrees or so. Add wind to that and it made for a fun track! Jacey wasn't happy in the car the minute we got in it at the hotel. I bundled her up at the park and Crista, another mom, went to hide with Jacey. I got Dublin going on the track and he did excellent. We then had Crista take Jacey to hide again so that we could call it a day with tracking. The wind was super cold but Jacey did great with Crista. We quickly got her back in the car and the screaming began again. It's pretty funny because they tell us to "happy" talk, praise, and give the dog treats when the child is exhibiting a behavior that we would like to see behavior disruption with from the dog. Every time we sweet talk Dublin, Jacey goes quiet. We stop, she screams. We praise Dublin, she stops. Hopefully Dublin catches on to what behavior we want help with. :o)
Once we got to 4 Paws, Jacey was happy again coloring with crayons. When our entire group got back to the center, Jeremy had us practice disruption with the dogs in a down. We also learned a couple of the tricks the dogs know. Dublin lays down when you "shoot" him in his side with your hand and you say "bang". He took a while to figure out what I was wanting since he was hearing the command from a new person...something we hadn't done before. He eventually got the idea but was really wanting to sniff my hands for treats! Go figure! :o) We can also say "go to sleep" or "night, night" for the same result. He is great with shaking hands, giving five and giving high five. It was really neat to see him do these. We'll definitely have to keep practicing the "bang" so he gets really good at it.
Judd, Jacey and I ran through the Sonic drive-thru for lunch. I then dropped them off back at the hotel since Jacey wasn't needed for the training session this afternoon. We asked Jeremy lots of questions about tracking and he showed us more of how the dogs work in stores and what to watch for. He then discussed appropriate toys for the dogs and ones to stay away from. Jeremy told us that by brushing a dogs teeth a couple times a week can increase it's lifetime by two years. Apparently the bacteria in the mouth works its way down into the stomach and eats away at things. Pretty crazy! I never would have thought that I'd even consider brushing a dogs teeth let along purposefully putting my fingers in the dogs mouth. Basic grooming was discussed - clipping nails, giving baths, brushing your dog down, cleaning ears, etc.
I know this seems to be a somewhat short blog tonight but my eye lids are not wanting to cooperate. Also, you've heard about previous tracks and this afternoon had lots of questions and answers...and grooming basics. I did ask a lot of questions, thanks to having Sasha in our home now for a year.
Today was a great day filled with lots of information, tricks, and working on obedience. Jacey did fairly well at 4 Paws, just not in the car. She again fell asleep snuggling into me tonight. Unfortunately, our camera was somehow forgotten at 4 Paws and so I have no photos to upload tonight. I know I am terrible but it is kind of nice. :o) So, tomorrow I have a little extra homework uploading extra photos. We'll cross that bridge when we get there!
Have a great night!
Amy
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Good work. That's a lot of hard work going on over there.
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