An interesting day

What an interesting day!


We're working more on coming out of play with Lily and settling down enough to listen to his brain.  It's a good exercise for both dogs. 


Sometime in the last two days, both Lily and Shayla have had a "meeting of the minds" with Landry and have taught him to respect them when they tell him that enough is enough.  And respect them he does.  It makes for an entirely different dynamic in the household.......at long last.


I am insisting on no running in the house.  That requires the cooperation of both the "L" dogs, because there is always the chaser and the chasee.


No xpen today for Landry.  With new dynamic and new house rules, it wasn't necessary.  But there was (and will continue to be) crate time.  For everyone.  My girls readily understand and accept the crate and Landry does, too.  We have trained L2 CRATE:  Get In the crate on cue and the duration has just been built gradually and by necessity.  I continue to "train" the Get In so sometimes he must stay long enough for the door to be closed and opened and then released on cue (Let's Go) and other times he is confined.  Always, though, he gets the extra special treat reserved for the crate.


Landry is teething big time and he and Lily were playing tug on a toy that Landry brought with him this morning when I noticed bright red blood on it.  Couldn't find the source of the blood on either dog.


MILESTONE:
Landry was expelled from Satin Scissors this morning.  He became so overwrought by their attempts to trim his nails that they feared he might injure himself.  So, until he can accept nail trimming and handling calmly, he may not return.  Work ahead for Dale on this one.  Fortunately Sue arrives tomorrow.  Hopefully she will help us with a rehabilitation plan.


A trip to McDonald's where Landry remained crated, the hatch up, watching the world and listening to sounds and activities of the base.  Then, out of the crate but sitting in the car calmly.  Then, giving me L1 behaviors in the car and 5 seconds of watch.  Out of the car for a very nicely done Lazy Leash.  Toilet on cue on chunky bark.  That makes:  concrete, grass, gravel, bark (2 varieties that I am aware of) and mud.


When we returned home this afternoon, Dale had been here and taken Lily for a walk.  It was very interesting to watch Landry search the house for her.  Now he is resting quietly on the floor beside my chair chewing on his bumper.  Shayla is resting quietly along side.  An entirely different dynamic without Lily.  This shows me another side to Landry.  Quiet.  Focused.  In control.  And still respectful of Shayla.


For the very first time, he heard something outside of the yard and alert barked to it.  He ran to the courtyard (I thought perhaps it was Dale and Lily returning, but it wasn't).  I called, "Landry, Come" and he did and returned to my feet.


We look forward to more of this time w/o Lily in the mix.

Training on Base

Landry had another training session on base this morning.  Dropped my car off for an oil change at 7AM.  Then the Man and I (and his brown bumper, a bully stick and a rawhide in my computer bag, the computer, and my backpack) began a LLW from the garage to the NEX.


Lots of new surfaces, new smells to investigate.  Landry wore his Sensation harness but kept a fairly loose leash.  With all of Dale's "leash pressure" practice, Landry is giving to the pressure on a pretty regular basis.  BUT........we were in no hurry.  We had an hour and a half to fill.


At the NEX we found an outside table near to an electric outlet and I plugged in my computer, put down the brown bumper and "chewies" and made a nice little home base for us.  At 7AM there are people going in and out getting coffee and light traffic, but it's the perfect time and place to take a young puppy to work on socialization, focus and attention.


Landry has a very well developed nose!  He stands and observes his surroundings, looking at and smelling everything.


He met people, trying to remember to keep 4 on the floor.  He had pigeons to watch.  He toiletted on gravel.  He successfully did Leash: Step 2, laddering up to 15 steps before turning.


Sometimes he was able to focus enough to give me his L1 behaviors.  Sometimes not.


Sometimes he was able to focus enough to give me 19 seconds of DownStay.  Sometimes not.


Every little bit counts.


And when he had investigated enough, he lay on his mat with his chewies and I emailed on my computer.


Then we introduced the grocery cart to Landry and our trip back to the garage was spent walking beside the cart.  We walked all the way around the garage.  We made left turns and right turns.  He was a real little champ.  Walking the cart on the street it banged and bounced.  Landry was unphased.


A good session with lots of new experiences.

The chicken or the egg???

Which came first?


Landry had a tough morning at FD class.  There were many unexpected challenges.  The dogs outside in the play yard were confrontational with each other and their verbalizations with each other were upsetting to many of our older dogs as well.


Then we had more dogs and crates in our training room than usual - 10 altogether.


First, I put him in the tent and zipped up the door.  Now he had been in and out of the tent many times, but never expected to stay in it for more than a minute with the screen zipped.  And in a room of many other tents and crates containing other dogs.  Although his tent contained his "blankie" - his brown bumper - and a bully stick and a chew toy and food, he wanted none of it.


From the very beginning he wanted OUT.  So we put him in Logan's wire crate but that didn't do.  We covered the crate and I even hit the crate, but to no avail.


Then we let him roam the room freely.  That was better, but disturbing to some of the other dogs.  So I got down on the floor with him.  He refused food.  He showed a bevy of stress signals.  And then he began to tremble.


As I began heading outside with him he deficated on the floor.  A very loose stool.  We went outside and almost immediately he deficated once again.  And then he began to sniff and relax.  For the remainder of the 2 hour class, trainers took turns coming outside to take his leash.  And by the time we left, he was our Landry of old.


On the ride home and since, I have been replaying the scenario in my mind.


This morning before we left, he had two similar stools, so the loose stool was not brought on by stress.  They are stomach related I am certain.


Was his frantic behavior because he needed to toilet?  It very possibly could have been.


Already we know that he is not relaxed in the classroom, but he is also interested in all things going on around him.


So before we attribute his behavior and his stress to any single thing or analyze it too deeply, I want to balance facts with supposition and the biggest fact was the stomach upset that preceded arriving at the classroom.


We are too often apt to jump to conclusions.  This one deserves thought.

The video shows me that he was frantically saying that he needed to toilet.  Now that I am watching the Flip I see many similarities to the way he tells me the same thing when he is in his x-pen.  I should have been more observant.  Another example of why you need to focus on your dog and not on other things.  Hard to do when you are trying to lead a class at the same time.  I'm sorry, little man.  I should have taken you out sooner!


This reminds me of a story Sue tells about Stitch running out of a seminar to toilet.......and then returning after the mission was accomplished.




Here is the same puppy two hours later at home.