ALMOST 5 MONTHS OLD NOW

It's hard to believe she was ever that little... LOL

She is being very much the Mastiff side of her mix these days - eat, sleep, eat, sleep, sleep, get closer to the heater, sleep some more...

STAR PUPPY CLASS TONIGHT

STAR PUPPY Class tonight 
After class we worked on new obstacles which will count towards not only her LEVEL 3 CONTACT and THROUGH for Dog Scouts but are great body awareness exercises.   We tried the teeter as well but she showed me we need to go back to some rear end awareness exercises for her as she had no clue where her butt was or that she could put her back feet on the object.  She just walked it sideways for the most part.    She hadn't worked on any of these before tonight and after just a few reps - she had it!  Good girl!

LOOK AT THOSE LEGS

WINTER TEMPS MEANS MORE BEDTIME FOR THE GIRLS

These two are never far apart - she loves her Fizzy. 

But there is more than just cute pics going on here.  What does your dog do when you are cooking or eating?  I live in a very small old farmhouse and there is not a ton of room for dogs to be milling around while I am cooking.  The big boys, Gryph and Luka tend to hang out on the beds in the adjoining bedroom and the girls are happy to settle on this bed in the kitchen so they can keep an eye on things but not be in the way.

Teaching your dogs to automatically go to their space when you start preparing dinner and stay there while you are eating can be a huge help and it is a great IMPULSE CONTROL behavior. 

It stops accidents from being underfoot, stops begging and scavenging, prevents counter surfing behaviors and creates calmness and an automatic SETTLE behavior.  Every house can benefit from this!

LUNA is going home for the holidays

I have a friend coming in from New Zealand to stay for awhile and Luna gets to go hang out with her family for a week as well...

Please be careful, enjoy your holidays and we will see you in the New Year!

MILEMARKER: LEVEL 1 TRAINING LEVELS COMPLETE

Our first MileMarker besides basic socialization and exposure training was for Luna to complete her LEVEL 1 CORE by Christmas.  She has done this beautifully.

There are 5 basic criteria here:
COME GAME - Recall between two people
SIT - Verbal and Hand Signal Individually
DOWN - Verbal and Hand Signal Individually
TOUCH - Nose to Palm Targeting
LEAVE IT - In her case, she is already doing LVL 2 - open hand and on the floor

In the FACEBOOK GROUP that I run for this - I have created extra credit exercise for each behavior which we will be doing as well as it is good practice and fun for her to learn the extra skills.

Onto LEVEL 2!

PROGRESS REPORT 11.6.17-11.18.17

Over the last few weeks, Luna has settled in, gotten to meet and experience any new situations on her socialization checklist and started working on passive skills of calmness and impulse control.

We are working on skills from many different places right now:
PASSIVE SKILLS - just asking general calm behaviors and good choices
SUE AILSBY's TRAINING LEVELS 1 (and a few LVL 2)
C.L.A.S.S (Canine Life & Social Skills) BA/LVL 1
OFF LEASH Focus and Recall Skills

She also got to join my Thursday Group Class to work on some new skills and behaviors around other dogs she had never met.  Overall - very pleased with her progress. She is a wonderful little pup.

SOCIALIZATION CHECKLIST UPDATE

CONTAINMENT FRUSTRATION - DAYS 4-6

We have been working on Luna's frustration levels in regards to being contained in the car, behind a baby gate and in the crate.  She is making fabulous progress in under a week.

I am using a system of capturing and shaping her OFFERING behaviors such as getting into the crate, choosing a calm body language like Sit or Down, choosing to remain in the crate on her own, not stressing over the door being closed, not stressing over me going out of sight and finally her remaining quiet at lights out.

This is a long video (11:30min) but shows how we worked through it.  She has gone from literally hours of fussing to the occasional few minutes in less than a week.

I'm very proud of her!