Training progress
Senna is doing better and better being around other dogs and people. In the weekend we went for a walk with my friend Irene and her husky lookalike Barney. It was the second walk together and it already went much better than the first.
When Irene came to our place we did some greeting exercises, with me feeding Senna ham so that she kept calm when Irene approached. She still got very excited and wanted to go say hi so badly but kept reasonably focused on me (or the ham rather...:) Then we went to get Barney from the car and just started walking, dogs not being allowed to play. Last time I was struggling with Senna for quite some time but I think the puppy course is really helping her in getting used to staying calm with other dogs around, because this time there wasn't any struggle to speak of. With a bit of ham in my hand anything is possible:)
We even tried putting both dogs in the middle between us while walking and that went well. The dogs were already so "in to" their walk they didn't really flinch:) When we got home Senna was exhausted, but since Irene and Barney wanted to come up to ours for a while we asked the dogs to stay calm while sitting on the floor a few meters apart. That was a really hard mental exercise. Senna fell asleep after a short while, completely shattered from having to concentrate for so long as well on the walk. Barney didn't give up so easily though:) Being a year older than Senna he was really eager to play! We figured that it would have been a bad idea though, since we quite like our flat:)
The puppy course is going well, last week Senna was really tired from playing with a new dog in daycare and was a lot more quiet than usual. When we got home afterwards she went straight to sleep and started making really weird noises, like the horn on a ship or something. Then she wagged her tail! In her sleep! I didn't even know dogs did that:) She truely lives up to the breed characteristic of being a "tail wagger" 24/7:)
In the course she's getting more and more used to being around other dogs and will do absolutely anything for ham and treats, so with that in my pocket she's usually 100% focused on me. I wanted to get her some new treats for the course last week and bought her some Omega3 fish oil snacks...My good were they smelly! I hid one for her in the living room that she got to sniff out, but when she found it she didn't eat it, she rolled in it! Yuck!
She's also worked out how to use her "dog pyramid" activity toy (you load it with treats and then the dog has to roll it around on the floor to try get them out). Now she either slaps it with her paw or kind of rolls it with her mouth and paws. Clever girl!
This coming weekend Senna's going to stay with Tuomo's dad. I am off to Stockholm for the weekend and Tuomo's also going away so we had to arrange "doggie sitter". They enjoy each other company though, so I'm sure they'll have a nice time together.
When Irene came to our place we did some greeting exercises, with me feeding Senna ham so that she kept calm when Irene approached. She still got very excited and wanted to go say hi so badly but kept reasonably focused on me (or the ham rather...:) Then we went to get Barney from the car and just started walking, dogs not being allowed to play. Last time I was struggling with Senna for quite some time but I think the puppy course is really helping her in getting used to staying calm with other dogs around, because this time there wasn't any struggle to speak of. With a bit of ham in my hand anything is possible:)
We even tried putting both dogs in the middle between us while walking and that went well. The dogs were already so "in to" their walk they didn't really flinch:) When we got home Senna was exhausted, but since Irene and Barney wanted to come up to ours for a while we asked the dogs to stay calm while sitting on the floor a few meters apart. That was a really hard mental exercise. Senna fell asleep after a short while, completely shattered from having to concentrate for so long as well on the walk. Barney didn't give up so easily though:) Being a year older than Senna he was really eager to play! We figured that it would have been a bad idea though, since we quite like our flat:)
The puppy course is going well, last week Senna was really tired from playing with a new dog in daycare and was a lot more quiet than usual. When we got home afterwards she went straight to sleep and started making really weird noises, like the horn on a ship or something. Then she wagged her tail! In her sleep! I didn't even know dogs did that:) She truely lives up to the breed characteristic of being a "tail wagger" 24/7:)
In the course she's getting more and more used to being around other dogs and will do absolutely anything for ham and treats, so with that in my pocket she's usually 100% focused on me. I wanted to get her some new treats for the course last week and bought her some Omega3 fish oil snacks...My good were they smelly! I hid one for her in the living room that she got to sniff out, but when she found it she didn't eat it, she rolled in it! Yuck!
She's also worked out how to use her "dog pyramid" activity toy (you load it with treats and then the dog has to roll it around on the floor to try get them out). Now she either slaps it with her paw or kind of rolls it with her mouth and paws. Clever girl!
This coming weekend Senna's going to stay with Tuomo's dad. I am off to Stockholm for the weekend and Tuomo's also going away so we had to arrange "doggie sitter". They enjoy each other company though, so I'm sure they'll have a nice time together.
posted by Senna | 18:02
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