Breakfast went well with Dublin and Jacey. She ate like a horse since she didn't eat a very good dinner the night before. She really enjoys eating our food more than her own. Surprise, surprise, right?! We met at Rotary Park this morning for our tracking session. Dublin did a great job finding his girl...both times! Judd took off running on the first track and I wasn't able to keep up with him. The second track, I took the lead and worked Dublin. He was very kind to me and didn't pull so hard that I fell over or slid or anything. It was really cold...again.
Oh, that made me think. Judd said that yesterday I posted what looked like a negative 14 degrees...it was actually just a dash. Sorry, just fourteen degrees above zero. Hopefully if it was subzero, Jeremy would be kind to us about tracking outside...maybe?!
Once we finished up with our two tracks we went back to 4 Paws. Jennifer went over the rest of the behavior disruption commands. She said that we have now learned all of the commands and behavior disruption commands. Holy cow! My brain is flooded with information right now. Dublin knows of course, "high five", "give me five", and "shake". He does not know to "bark" on command. We also learned "stand" and "back". "Stand" is when we want them to go from a sit or down to standing so that we can, for example, put on their harness. I'm going to have to work with "lap" and "over" with Dublin as he looks at me like, "Huh? What do you want me to do?" However, he definitely figured out "kiss" when my finger was smeared with peanut butter!!!
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| Dublin does behavior disruption on me...definitely needed! :o) |
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| I point to where I want Dublin to "kiss". |
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| Notice the peanut butter on my finger that is pointing. |
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| My hands were ultra moist after practicing "kiss"!!! :o) |
We met back at the mall today after lunch. Judd was super sweet to me by stopping at a yarn shop for me to buy some yarn that I could work on making a hat with. The yarn I brought was two different brands and I didn't like the way it was turning out in the way that it felt. I sure got lucky in the husband department. Last night, he hunted down a Baskin Robins for me and today, a yarn shop. He's definitely a keeper. Judd was extremely thrilled that we ate at Chipotle for lunch today. He said he could eat there again. :o) We were both somewhat shocked that I ate my entire burrito! Usually I get through half of one and am full. Tonight at dinner, I ate three tacos. Talk about eating well! It must be all this running after Dublin and all the mental and physically draining parts of class. So much information!
We went on a few short tracks in JcPenney's today with Jessa and Christie. I started out with the first. Jessa told Judd exactly where to go so we would know what path he and Jacey took to make sure Dublin was on. Unfortunately, he wasn't. There were many aisle openings and Jessa thinks he got tunnel vision and started following a different scent. I was really disappointed but Jessa reassured me that this isn't the first time that has happened with the dogs. I was reminded to pause at intersections to make sure that he is sure about what way to go. After I tracked with Dublin three times, Judd went a couple of times. Jessa said that Dublin became more and more sure of himself as we did more tracks. So, Judd and I went for a walk with Jacey who happened to be tethered. :o)
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| Tethering with Jacey is definitely interesting. Looks like she's trying to clothes line me! |
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| Dublin did very well on staying with us on the stairs. |
Tethering is interesting because you not only have to make sure the dog is staying with you in a "heel" but you also have to be aware of what the child is doing at the other end of the tether. Jacey would sometimes walk along the side of me on my right so that the tether strap would continuously hit me in my calves. Other times, she would be all the way at the end of the tether like she was a caboose of a train. I'd say that Jacey did fairly well being tethered. She still had her moments where she would just sit down on the floor...and sometimes lay down also. Judd was really good about picking her up and carrying her when we knew she wasn't going to walk for us. We went on a few more small tracks with Jacey and Dublin in a few other stores in hopes to get his confidence built up. The first time Judd went to track on his own, Dublin again went a wrong direction but still found her in the end. So we are making the tracks extremely short. I'll need to bring more rewarding treats for him when we go again so that he really gets excited and wants to do well. As the bonding between him and Jacey grow stronger, so will his ability to remember and track her scent. Eventually, he'll have no problem tracking Jacey out of a crowd of a thousand people. Baby steps, right?!
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| All done tracking in Macy's. |
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| This almost looks too natural to have Jacey just walking along with Judd. |
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| By the time we finished doing a few tracks in Dick's Sporting Goods, Jacey was done walking. Judd packed her up and we were ready to go! :o) Who knew the tether strap could be multi-purpose?! :o) |
We survived the mall for the most part. It was much nicer going on a day other than Saturday or Sunday - not nearly as many people!!! Jacey was definitely DONE when we left! It is so funny how she will stop crying when I go to praise Dublin. And of course the minute I stop praising and "happy" talking Dublin, she starts screaming again.
We got back to the hotel where she was able to run. We got out her matching picture cards that I made for this trip and they entertained her for quiet a while. Then it was time to go for dinner. She ate in normal Jacey fashion, leaving plenty of leftovers for the next guest to make at least one taco with what was on the table. :o)
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| Jacey giggles with delight as Dublin checks out what is going on. |
The rest of the evening went by quickly. Again, she fell asleep sitting in my lap....and again, Judd took her and layed her down. Dublin quickly jumped up from the place he was laying down and followed them into the room. Judd gave him the "jump" command where he quickly got up on Jacey's bed and layed down near her. It was nice to see Dublin wanting to be with her. At least that's the way we are looking at it!
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| Out for the count! |
So here I am, at the end of another busy and draining day. Judd's already off to bed as he has to get up early to get some work done. Bed sounds really nice right now...
So, until tomorrow evening... Have a great one!
Amy
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