Day 6? Morning..

I'm getting my days mixed up.... since we got him last Sunday today must be our 6th day. Sorry about that.

We noticed he had tapeworms in his stool (which happens if they swallow a flea) so this morning he had a full vet exam and a fecal test and we left with deworming pills. His health is great. He doesn't have fleas, so he must have ingested a flea before last week? Just to be sure we're putting some Advantage on him this weekend.

At the vet, he was terrified in the lobby and tried to crawl under any low table or chair. I held him, which helped. In the room, on the table, he was better until they took his anal temperature but his only reaction was submissive shaking and a "please help me!" look. No attempts to snap or bite, ever. Everyone at the vet's office loved him, and they let me put up a flyer about him. Another flyer is up at Moore's Market in Lunada Bay.

Got him home, and he was still upset about the vet visit and would not come out of his crate in the car. He was insistent, he did not want to come out. I think he wanted to make sure I really got the message. I was not going to force the issue, that isn't a good idea. So I securely tied the end of the leash to the car, and got one of my other dogs to come out to the lawn by the car. That did it, he was suddenly happy again, willing to take a treat. He just needed some reassurance that we were back in a happy place. But it does go to show that he has not been out in public much so I need to get him out more.

Took him around on the K9 Cruiser, and he trotted along beautifully. A neighbor was walking her two dogs, and I did NOT want to pass them, I don't think we're ready for that yet. (It's an unpredictable sitaution, and if her dogs barked and lunged at him, it could ruin his confidence in those situations for a very long time. This shaping stuff is fragile. Better to introduce that kind of risk slowly).

I said hello from about 30 feet away, and made a slow U-turn so we didn't have to pass them. He was a bit concerned about their being behind us (even though they were WAY behind us) and he touched my ankle twice as I was pedaling. He was clearly signaling me, and I was delighted at this clear communication. I talked to him and told him it was OK, good boy. He glanced back once or twice but settled back into the trot. We passed a group of 5 people walking along, no problem (still they were a good 25 feet away). Cars went by. He did really well!

So after the vet visit I wanted to see if he retained the training we'd done this morning and yesterday. He'd been sitting on command (verbal and hand cue combined) 100% of the time. Ears up, happy. After the vet visit, we would expect a regression because he had been stressed. So with my other dogs milling me (a new distraction for a training situation) I cued E to sit, and he seemed to forget. We tried it 2 more times, and voila, it was back. We went inside to a hallway, again, with dogs around, and he sat on cue the first time. Beautiful. We're already working on adding duration to the sit behavior.

All this training of E has resulted in 3 other dogs who are reminding me constantly that it's THEIR turn to be trained, so now I'm having to do short sessions with them too to keep them happy. I'm tuning up their "wait" and "leave it" behaviors. Having dogs who love to train and work is a good problem to have. Thank goodness I have a few books that give me ideas of new tricks to keep them busy. Our latest is "Namaste". I say "Namaste" and put my hands into the yoga-prayer position and bow slightly to the dog. The dog does a deep bow back to me, as if returning the "Namaste".

I've introduced the "come" command to E, in its very beginning phase. All the food he's getting is via training, he is not having meals in addition. This is because I'm doing so much training with him! It allows me to do lots and lots of repetitions but not overfeed him. He weighs 25.3 lbs, by the way.

We're making great progress breaking his pattern of keeping of reach, making it hard to catch him. Keeping him on leash more has helped since that pattern cannot happen when he's on leash, so it gives us the chance to build a new pattern in its place. But even in the toileting area, where he is off leash (in an area now fully enclosed with ex-pens) he comes right up to me when he's done to have the leash put on and to leave the area. Part of this is because the area has small smooth rocks, and he doesn't like that surface. He's wanting to leave as soon as he's done. I'm also clicking and treating when he comes up to me proactively. All of these things combined are creating the new pattern.

Now that his confidence has grown, he's less interested in retreating into his crate every five minutes. So I actually have to lure him into his crate with a treat now when I want him in there. When we first got him, you couldn't keep him out of the crate!