I often bring Albee to work with me. (I work at a college.) He spends most of the day sleeping on the little couch in my office, or under my desk. I often let him follow me to the bathroom, to coworkers' offices, etc. He is off-leash during these little excursions down the hall, and we've done a lot of work on waiting until released before running ( Read more... )

On Sunday afternoon I took Albee outside with me while I hung up the laundry. The neighbors were out in their fenced yard with their two yappy-barky dogs, so Albee ran over to visit them. This behavior normally makes me cross with him, but this time I had a brainstorm. I pulled out the banana I'd brought out with me, walked over to the fence, and ( Read more... )

I've decided that I need to spend more time just playing with my dog. He's got fantastic self control, so I can relax my standards on that (hard for me!) and just focus on having fun with him. To that end, mid-morning today I brought Albee outside onto the lawn next to my office and did some playing with him with the wombat-on-a-string. He was a ( Read more... )

Lest you all think my bond with my dog is broken, let me report that I love him as much as ever and have been having a blast training and playing with him lately. Sure, I have frustrated moments, but as a trainer I need to remember to take those opportunities to take a break and assess how I can change the situation to help Albee understand what I ( Read more... )

I am an avid reader of Susan Garrett's blog, newsletter, and any of her other writing or videos that I can get my hands on ( Read more... )

Albee has, on and off, exhibited fearful behavior toward men. It's mild but obvious - shying away when they try to touch him, keeping his distance, turning his head away as they lean over him. He doesn't do it with all men - a couple of my coworkers are solidly in his group of Happy People - but he does it with certain men, even some of those he ( Read more... )

Fun dog trick: We've taught Albee the cues "Where's mama?" and "Where's daddy?" (or "Find mama/daddy"). We use this to get him to run across the house and then back to get a treat. It's a good brain game as well as giving him a tiny bit of physical exercise.

transversely has also started using this cue to get Albee to help him find me when he doesn't know ( Read more... )

Yesterday was a great day in Albee-land! First, transversely brought him to my Fun Agility class. Albee was a bit scatterbrained, but was able to be off leash for most of the class, and recalled back to us even while running toward other dogs ( Read more... )

Albee spits out (fairly high value) treats on cue:

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Albee does figure eights around my legs:

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I've been having a lot of "ARGH THIS DOG IS MAKING ME CRAZY" moments - or, in truth, days - lately. Sometimes I fall into despair when I ask for a too-hard recall and Mr. Environmentally Distracted blows me off to go sniff the neighbors' fence ( Read more... )