It's super fun having Sia back so soon! Of course she had to be small with the other dogs for the first 15 minutes or so but after that she was all settled in. Some of her hardest walks on leash are walking to her house and walking from my car to the back yard when she first arrives. Today she did an awesome job making it to the back gate on a loose leash. When she first got out of the car, she started to walk ahead of me so I stopped. She quickly fixed herself and walked nicely beside me the entire way to the gate. That's the best she's ever done walking towards that distraction! She was able to get to her reward (going in the dog yard) more quickly because she walked nicely on leash. No need for treats, her reward is getting off leash to play in the fenced in yard.
It did not take us long to take the edge off of her energy level. Soon her tongue was hanging and she was ready to work.
Normally I tell people when they are greeting dogs to be very calm and mimic the behavior you want to see from your dog. Today, I did the opposite. I threw my arms up in the air and said "Sia, you are such a good girl" in a really loud, friendly and exciting voice. Her first response was to try to jump up on me. I quickly turned away and then praised her when she quickly sat down for a greeting. This picture made me laugh a bit. She has that look on her face like "I don't know why you are acting like a fool but I guess I'll play along."
The next time she made a mistake and her feet started to come off the ground, I quickly said "Oh, too bad" and gave the treat to the lab sitting next to her. Now Sinbad is getting rewarded for behavior that Sia should be doing. Sinbad thinks this is a great exercise.
Not so fast, Sinbad, Sia quickly figures out what she needs to do to earn that treat. She needs to offer the sit as the first behavior when she is greeting me. It matters not how crazy I act, Sia needs to keep her feet on the floor.
We'll practice this a lot and make sure she has it really solid before we take her show on the road. New people will add enough excitement at first so we'll start out with calm greetings from unknown people. Once she gets better at that, maybe we will through in one or two excited greetings from strangers.
We wore her out quickly today. No wonder she requires so many additional calories when she comes here. All that hard work and play really wears a girl out.
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