It has been 3 months now since I last wrote. Daniel has grown up in more ways than one.
At the last vet check Dan weighed 60 pounds and was healthy and all was well.
We did go through a slow training stage where he just had no interest in listening to me. At this time I decided it was best to just let Dan be Dan and I stopped all skill training and just concentrated on his behavior in public and of course at home.
After about 8 weeks Dan was ready to learn again. I was surprised how fast he learned.
In a very short time he learned to open and shut drawers and cabinet doors. This was accomplished with ties to the doors and drawers and the instructions to pull or nudge. He loves nudging so much that it is not unusual for him to not allow you to open the door before he has his nose up against and shoving it shut.
Dan and my family have been spending a lot of time at theatrical productions in the last month. We took him to Blue Man Group last week and as I expected neither the noise or commotion gave him any concern.
We also spent time at the state girls basketball tournament. I think Dan liked looking at the jumbo tram. He made the telecast at least twice.
I am starting to work on having Dan really watch what I am doing. At times he really loves the attention that he gets when we are in public. Then there are other times when he only has eyes for me and does not care for the attention. Soon it will be time to politely tell people that Dan is in training and he cannot receive attention from anyone but me at this point. This is not a favorite time in the training for me but it is a necessary part of the training.
Dan has also started having to do skills in public. In the past Dan has basically only been asked to just behave in public but now he has started some skills in public. In the pictures he is handling this very well. This is a slow process and Dan is only asked to do a few things at each outing and if he refuses we go back to retrieving which he will do readily so we end on a good note.
Till next time...Happy Spring from Daniel and Deb
At the last vet check Dan weighed 60 pounds and was healthy and all was well.
We did go through a slow training stage where he just had no interest in listening to me. At this time I decided it was best to just let Dan be Dan and I stopped all skill training and just concentrated on his behavior in public and of course at home.
After about 8 weeks Dan was ready to learn again. I was surprised how fast he learned.
In a very short time he learned to open and shut drawers and cabinet doors. This was accomplished with ties to the doors and drawers and the instructions to pull or nudge. He loves nudging so much that it is not unusual for him to not allow you to open the door before he has his nose up against and shoving it shut.
Dan and my family have been spending a lot of time at theatrical productions in the last month. We took him to Blue Man Group last week and as I expected neither the noise or commotion gave him any concern.
We also spent time at the state girls basketball tournament. I think Dan liked looking at the jumbo tram. He made the telecast at least twice.
I am starting to work on having Dan really watch what I am doing. At times he really loves the attention that he gets when we are in public. Then there are other times when he only has eyes for me and does not care for the attention. Soon it will be time to politely tell people that Dan is in training and he cannot receive attention from anyone but me at this point. This is not a favorite time in the training for me but it is a necessary part of the training.
Dan has also started having to do skills in public. In the past Dan has basically only been asked to just behave in public but now he has started some skills in public. In the pictures he is handling this very well. This is a slow process and Dan is only asked to do a few things at each outing and if he refuses we go back to retrieving which he will do readily so we end on a good note.
Till next time...Happy Spring from Daniel and Deb
No comments:
Post a Comment