Day 5 - Prepping for the Holiday and More

Sia works on her retrieve every other day. It's a process that she seems to enjoy quite a bit but it can also be very stressful for a dog so I want to make sure we're going at a nice, easy pace. This will help her have a much more solid foundation too. But all this hard work has another benefit...it also serves to burn off some of her energy. Anything where a dog is having to use her brain to think and process things is going to help with her energy level. And Sia has a lot of energy. As we are getting prepped for the upcoming holiday, I want to make sure she is well exercised before we join in on the festivities.

Sia helped me with food prep for tomorrow. This was also our practice time to make sure Sia is keeping her paws off the counters, especially when there will be a lot of food on the tables. She gets lots of rewards when she make appropriate choices in the kitchen and around the dining room table. We've been putting in some extra effort on her jumping as well. There will be new people and new dogs for her to interact with tomorrow and I want to make sure she is behaving politely. I will instruct everyone before they meet her how to handle it if she jumps. Anyone touching or talking to her when she jumps will just reinforce that behavior. I want everyone to ignore her and turn away. The more people do this, the faster she will learn that jumping on people does not pay off for her.

I also want to make sure she is giving clear signals when she needs to go to the bathroom so we don't have any accidents. If I can't keep my eyes on her throughout the evening, I'll put her in a kennel so she doesn't go to the bathroom in the house. She gives pretty clear signals (circling at the door, whining, and pacing) but if I get distracted, I might miss those signs. But I also know her schedule pretty well now so it's my responsibility to get her outside when I think she might need to go to the bathroom.

So we'll continue with all our normal lessons tomorrow and have the added benefit of some extra socialization in the evening. I think Sia will do well and she'll enjoy visiting with new people and new dogs (although I think she's still hoping for a kiss from Sinbad at midnight).