June Day Two -- Oh That Blasted Criteria

Today was a challenging day to work on leash skills...at least it was early this morning. Garbage day! Oh the trucks, they were such a distraction. No sense starting out until I got her attention.

We reviewed criteria today. So, what is our criteria? We want a loose leash, but what does that mean? Can she walk in front of me as long as she is not pulling? Or should she always walk right beside me? We set our criteria high since she is struggling some with this in high distraction environments (walking home, walking towards the doggy daycare building, walking towards my back yard, etc.). Any time her nose passed my leg I either stopped or quickly did a U-turn. No movement forward if she was out of position.

This is much harder for her in distracting situations so it's very helpful to have the head halter on. We still practice with the flat collar in low distraction environments but, because of her distractability and her challenges with her impulses, moderate to high distraction environments = head halter. It is much easier to catch her just as her nose is starting to get too far ahead. If she is already half a body length ahead of you, it's much more work to get her back into position. We practiced a lot of one step forward then sit, one step forward then sit, etc. until we got to her goal (whether that be home, a toy, playtime, or something else of value to her).

Sia worked hard on her greetings today too. She did pretty well. We won't count the time she licked the person's eye when they were trying to pet her.

Sia has picked out a favorite toy for this visit. It's a great chew toy and she needs that now as her jaw is still growing and changing and she physically needs to chew.

But I thought she was going to go out of her mind when Sinbad had the chew toy.

Although she was relentless in her pestering, she still responded to recalls. Good girl!

Sinbad was not going to give up that toy until he was good and ready. He decided he was ready when he realized her might be a belly rub. Sia was happy to take the toy off his paws.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Sia's worried look. It was dinner time and she was very concerned that I might not have time to feed her while I was busy taking pictures. Needless to say, she is eating well here. We're mixing it up and sometimes she's in her crate and other times she is not. Regardless, she's hungry...very hungry.