Not TOO much badness today!
I'm really impressed with the difference I am seeing in Cora since Jim and I took her to the new Trainer.
She's only being a puppy (ten months this week!), but at an amazing 99 lbs, she is a BIG girl to be romping all over us this much. (and bless her, she is smart as a WHIP, and gets bored SO easily!)
I have been the one with the most 'fault' in not raising her well- lesson learned: A guy with serious anxiety, seizures, and other health issues is not a good canidate for raising his own Service Dog PUPPY... I did fine with young adults. Just not with puppies who aren't trained at ALL yet.
Axel weighed 99 pounds when we got him (tho he gained some after, as he had been a skeleton when they got him- he had been used as a 'bait dog', his muzzle and paws taped up while fighting dogs were trained to attack him- and HE was well trained, and QUICKLY became an AWESOME Service Dog!) ... if a Dog with that much trauma can learn to be an amazing Service Dog, so can Cora.
She is already learning 'redirect' commands from even me, with my high anxiety about things. This morning I was taking her outside to pee, and she grabbed my foot to try and entice play, and I held up her new "binky ball" and squeaked it- and BOOM, I had her full attention.
It works WAY better than "flappy stick" which is more a target stick (well, it's a short crop with a HAND shaped 'flapper'. tee hee!) so it doesn't get /attention/ so much as it was supposed to direct her to move to a specific spot or touch the tip with her nose, etc... Binky Ball (and other toys) make her suddenly redirect her PLAY. So instead of saying "I don't wanna play. Go do THIS for me!" ...it is saying, "YOU wanna play? Sure- play like THIS!" Cause I don't wanna play like THAT. ;)
She's a funny puppy.
Jim played a game with her while we waited for some tests to come back at the Vet Office- We have been moving her "Touch!" command (where she pokes an item with her nose) to a 'pushing buttons' behavior, so she can open doors for me- and he was using a robber door stopper as the target- the kind you put on a wall to keep a door handle from denting the wallboard? Yeah- it /happened/ to be below the xray-light-panel... so after she'd successfully hit the spot he asked her to like a button- he tried a test-
He asked her to touch the 'button' and then he turned on the light.
She was all WHOA... dude. I am not pushing THAT button again. It made the wall light up!!
*giggle*
This is actually ALSO good- because it means she associated her pushing it /with/ turning on the light. She would then push the other rubber wall protector with no trouble, but asked to push the one below the light again, would EYEBALL the light, and decline.
Tee hee.
So. As she knows how to open doors on her own, I am thinking she will learn door-opening-buttons pretty easily compared to other dogs I know!
What a silly puppy.
And YAY for trainers with good techniques. We attend the first class tomorrow night. :)
She's only being a puppy (ten months this week!), but at an amazing 99 lbs, she is a BIG girl to be romping all over us this much. (and bless her, she is smart as a WHIP, and gets bored SO easily!)
I have been the one with the most 'fault' in not raising her well- lesson learned: A guy with serious anxiety, seizures, and other health issues is not a good canidate for raising his own Service Dog PUPPY... I did fine with young adults. Just not with puppies who aren't trained at ALL yet.
Axel weighed 99 pounds when we got him (tho he gained some after, as he had been a skeleton when they got him- he had been used as a 'bait dog', his muzzle and paws taped up while fighting dogs were trained to attack him- and HE was well trained, and QUICKLY became an AWESOME Service Dog!) ... if a Dog with that much trauma can learn to be an amazing Service Dog, so can Cora.
She is already learning 'redirect' commands from even me, with my high anxiety about things. This morning I was taking her outside to pee, and she grabbed my foot to try and entice play, and I held up her new "binky ball" and squeaked it- and BOOM, I had her full attention.
It works WAY better than "flappy stick" which is more a target stick (well, it's a short crop with a HAND shaped 'flapper'. tee hee!) so it doesn't get /attention/ so much as it was supposed to direct her to move to a specific spot or touch the tip with her nose, etc... Binky Ball (and other toys) make her suddenly redirect her PLAY. So instead of saying "I don't wanna play. Go do THIS for me!" ...it is saying, "YOU wanna play? Sure- play like THIS!" Cause I don't wanna play like THAT. ;)
She's a funny puppy.
Jim played a game with her while we waited for some tests to come back at the Vet Office- We have been moving her "Touch!" command (where she pokes an item with her nose) to a 'pushing buttons' behavior, so she can open doors for me- and he was using a robber door stopper as the target- the kind you put on a wall to keep a door handle from denting the wallboard? Yeah- it /happened/ to be below the xray-light-panel... so after she'd successfully hit the spot he asked her to like a button- he tried a test-
He asked her to touch the 'button' and then he turned on the light.
She was all WHOA... dude. I am not pushing THAT button again. It made the wall light up!!
*giggle*
This is actually ALSO good- because it means she associated her pushing it /with/ turning on the light. She would then push the other rubber wall protector with no trouble, but asked to push the one below the light again, would EYEBALL the light, and decline.
Tee hee.
So. As she knows how to open doors on her own, I am thinking she will learn door-opening-buttons pretty easily compared to other dogs I know!
What a silly puppy.
And YAY for trainers with good techniques. We attend the first class tomorrow night. :)