She's got jjooowwwlly lips...

and fuuuunnnnyy teeth.

Penny & I had class with Ruth tonight. She was pretty distracted at the beginning and wasn't real interested in paying attention to me. But about 10 minutes into class, she found her focus. This class is awesome. We did a lot of heeling, stays and recalls. Ruth has a lot of great ideas for proofing stays & attention. Penny's SitStay is pretty reliable, but her DownStay could use some work. She's never tipped her hip & always downs in a sphynx position. Stands are crap, but the Stand Stay is surprisingly decent. We still struggle with that damn Swing Finish. I did way too much luring & exaggerated movement backward in the beginning and never really weaned off it.

I put on a big pot of chicken legs in the slowcooker right before we went to bed. BAAAAddd idea! By 3:00 am the smell of cooking chicken woke me up from a deep sleep. It also woke up Sherman who whined & cried for a good 2 hours b/c he wanted to eat chicken. Note to self...don't do that again.

Sherman & I had a blast at Dynamic Dogs tonight. Marsha took the class to Univ. of Pitt's Oakland campus to visit with some students. My little Bubba did such a great job...both with all of the other dogs & the students. Marsha brought Sandy, her Cocker Spaniel and there was a mini poodle, a toy/mini Rat Terrier & a GSDx. All of us are recent TDI grads & this really gets the dogs used to many different environments. We walked around the Cathedral of Learning & hung out with some students in one of the classrooms.

Sherman was on his A+ bestest behavior. He actually tried to play with some of the other dogs & other than that, he just hung out like a totally normal dogs (Sherman can get grouchy & bossy with other dogs...especially other males that are bigger than him). He was very friendly with everyone he met and was particularly fond of the 1/2 dozen butt rubs he got from some lovely female undergrads. I was very proud of my little man.

And I'm happy to report, Sherman did a great job of securing Pitt's campus. I think that was his favorite part!

"We love Chicken Jerky!!!!"


"Look how nice we sit when Mom gets out the bag"

"Lola...you'd better drop it or I'll bite you in the face!"

"I let a bunch of strange kids hug & kiss on me all day yesterday. You owe me! Hand it over!"

So my very busy Saturday started at the ass-crack of dawn (7:45 to be exact). Lola was going to Camp! She was very excited, but a perfect lady on the trip there.

"Are we there yet???"

After I dropped her off, I went to assist Debby with class at Animal Friends. It was an hour long "Companion Dog Manners" class and afterward, I zipped over the the Western PA Humane Society to assist my friend Bob with his classes. He has three classes...Teen Intervention, Puppy & Advanced Puppy (all classes Lola has taken, some more than once).

After class, Scotty dropped Penny off at the shelter & we headed over to the Shaler Library to do Reading with Rover. It didn't go as well as I would have liked. Penny was pretty distracted by the other dogs & didn't want to lay down much. She did for 75% of the time & met a few really nice kids (one of which took a huge liking to her & gave her a zillion hugs). But she freaked out at one of the other volunteer's dogs (Mary Ann's Sam) and kinda scared a couple kids. Nice. I quickly smoothed things over by telling them that Sam scared her b/c he was so big and she didn't want him to hurt her. They all understood and one little boy told me how he yells at the bigger kids at school if they come around him at lunch time b/c they scare him (his Mother seemed a little taken back) and it was all good after that. One boy read Penny a story about Ears and told me she was much prettier than the other dogs there. We're gonna try to go another time & if she seems as stressed as this time, we won't go again. Sherman would be wonderful at this but I need to make it clear to the kids that they cannot hug or lay on him. I'm gonna talk to Joy about that.

Then Penny & I went home and rested till it was time to pick Lola up. I checked on Lola a few times & she was supervising. She's the white dot on top of the A frame...her favorite spot!

I picked Lola up, ordered a cheesesteak hoagie, watched Weird Science & went to bed. It was a long day!

Winter's finally here!!! I actually like the snow & as our winters seem to be getting shorter a couple of months of snowy days are OK with me. But the last few days it's been frigid! It was 8 degrees when I took Sherman out this morning. He turned himself around to go home, which never happens!

Recently Lola's been waking up @ 2:30/3 and crying & banging on her crate. Twice I've taken her out b/c I thought she might be sick. Nope...just wants to sleep in our bed. The dogs all have to sleep on the floor as 3 dogs in a Queen sized bed does not make for a good night's sleep. Sherman is tethered b/c he's Sherman & Penny usually stays put till about 4 am & then she'll sneak up & curl herself into a teeny ball. I rarely know she's even there.

Well I realized that I had taken Lola's fleece blankie out of her crate to wash & never replaced it. She has a dog bed in there but she's used to snuggling with her blankie. So I got smart & put a new one in & she's slept peacefully through the night for a week.

"I wouldn't make a fuss if you'd let me sleep with my best friend Penny. We can both fit on this bed just fine."

Training Progress:

It has been entirely too cold to do anything productive on our walks. I did take Lola to Marsha's Super Puppy class and she's officially in love. His name is George and he looks kinda like this:

He's the size of a baby elephant and they had their first kiss on Wednesday. He was a little nervous to walk up the stairs so Lola planted a big sloppy wet one on him & encouraged him to follow her to class. She's also quite smitten with his Mom, Amy and thinks she'll make a fine Mother in Law.

Lola did really well in class. Our best in a while. Any time I wasn't paying attention to her, she'd go through her bag of tricks. Sit, Down, Bang!, Roll over, Spin, Down, Stare at Mom. It was quite cute really. She did great on all the heeling and her recall was adoreable. We did it across the whole room & she stayed in a Sit while I walked away. She did stand when I turned to face her but when I said Lola, Come!...she shot across the room to me like she was on fire. We practiced a lot of Stays with distractions (we need work in this!) and she could not resist kissing Marsha & Kelly when they came over to do the Sit for Exam. We did supervised separation for the first time and I was happy to hear that she whimpered a bit but then just hung out & waited for me. We did dog to dog introductions and she was awesome. She totally ignored the other dogs both time. She was fine meeting Marsha in the wheelchair but did not like the metal water bucket that was flung on the floor (it's LOUD!). She didn't want to investigate it at all (even with a salmon cookie placed inside) but once I turned it upside down, she ate a cookie off the top & decided it wasn't so bad. Could Lola be turning into a normal dog??? She didn't bark or flip out once...Not even coming into the building with all the other dogs leaving the previous class. She did do the little Lola Grrrrrr Rrrrrrr at George, but that's b/c she loves him & wanted to play.

Training Progress ( 1-22-07)

Sherman - recruited our neighbor Jezron to come to the Dynamic Dogs class and test the TDI dogs around kids. Shermie knows Jez & was fine. Most of the other dogs did really well too. I was happy to see a lot of familiar faces in class...Timber (the Rotti Sherm is very jealous of), Cowboy (Penny's boyfriend), Maxwell (the stupendous Spinone Italiano ) & Oscar (Kelly's adorable little Poodle, at least I think he's a poodle...I'm terrible at ID small curly breeds!). I tried very hard not to compare Sherman to Penny & it was easy in that they both have their own strengths. I can leave Sherman w/o him panicking. I can walk him across any surface w/o a problem, he's not afraid of anything and he's exceptionally happy to be hanging out with Mom. His only issue is other dogs & while I can control him with a Leave It or Look!, he likes to make a lot of noise. But we did ride in the elevator w/ two little dogs w/o incident. He didn't even look at them. And his heeling is pretty bad, but he's very good at LLW so I could care less if he stays in heel position.

Penny & Lola - took them both on walks w/o any problems. Practiced all of the usual stuff and am happy to report, they both acted like completely normal dogs!

Training progress (1-23-07)

Lola - did some fun clicker stuff. Worked on a few tricks...Spin, Twirl, Bang! and Get it! She remembered all of them. Played around with the Swing finish & she was sliding into heel w/ only a hand signal in about 3 minutes. I love the Clicker!! Actually Lola loves the clicker...or better yet, understands the clicker! Makes my life a lot easier.

Penny - took her to Ruth's Advanced class. It was awesome! We did lots of heeling patterns, worked on the Swing & Round finish (Penny picked up the Round a lot quicker than Swing) and worked Stays/Recalls. Penny was the first one to go & she was really stellar. Ruth had us put the dogs in a SitStay and walk around in random patterns. We could go up to them & reinforce the stays but the goal was to avoid the anticipation of being called. Not only did Penny not break, but she did a beautiful front (OK, it was a little crooked & not as close as I would have liked...but I was beaming!). We did some DownStays with distractions & Penny was next to a very handsome APDT that she was just dying to play with (they were making wiggle eyes at each other), but she never broke. We also practiced Back Up, which Penny knows to mean back away from the door, but it was good to practice having her back away from me. Ruth asked if I intended to compete with Penny. And then told me I should. I'll admit, Penny is awesome. Especially being the first dog I've ever trained (and we started only 3 years ago). She said Penny would have no problem getting her CD. But what about her "bundle of nerves" handler??? We'll see. I'm going to see if I can ILP her & then decide.

So we got a little more snow today. Snow gives Lola the zoomies!



Sherman thinks this is perfect "hunting" weather!

He hasn't caught anything...yet!

Someone found her big girl voice!!

Lola is always the last one to finish any chewie. Most likely due to her funny teeth. So, she's chewing away on a fresh dehydrated pig ear and Penny walks over to see just what's taking her so long. GGGGGRRRRRRrrrr! And it came from Lola!!! She has never, ever growled at either of the other two. They just usually growl at her! Been a long time comin', I suppose!


Now does this look like a grumbly dog to you??? She's very good at the sweet & innocent routine.

Training progress (01-18-07):

Walked all 3 separately again. Man, I'm sure am getting a workout these days! Nothing earth shattering to report. Still working on recalls w/ Sherman, LLW with Penny & reactivity issues with Lola. Everyone's doing really well & I'm looking forward to a wonderful Spring!!

Training progress (01-17-06):

Penny & I have our first solo therapy visit on the 27th. We're going to read to kids at a local library. Our TDI coordinator suggested we work on getting our dogs to lay on a mat and practice reading to them. So Penny & I worked on getting her to lay quietly on the mat. I gave up trying to shape it & just directed her where to go. She laid right down & held her Stay.

Then we worked on the reading part. I should note that Penny hates when we read, especially the newspaper or magazines. When we're reading, we can't be paying attention to her & that is just rude (according to Penny). So, she laid on the mat while I read her People magazine & gently stroked her. She liked that. We're going to practice that a couple nights a week so she can get used to it.

She can also read, all by herself.

"Ashlee Simpson looks way better since she had her nose done"

Lola - Took her to Marsha's Super Puppy class. When we got to the shelter, there were 8-10 little dogs coming out of the previous class. They were all walking through the parking lot and Lola gave a couple little growls, but stopped when I told her to leave it. We had to wait outside for them to let us in & a PWD puppy came bounding up to the door. Lola got very wiggly & I made her Sit & Wait and asked the guy if she could say hello. He said sure & they had a blast getting to know each other. Once inside, a woman we know from other classes came over to say hello with her new dog. He basically jumped Lola & started fighting with her & she fought back. We quickly broke it up & she calmed down quickly. After that she was stellar. She was a bit nervous about a 150 Mastiff b/c he was giant (and is still a puppy!) but I asked her to Leave It & she did. We did lots of Heeling, Stays, Recalls and handling. This class is basically a CGC/TDI prep class for puppies so we'll focus on several parts of the test. Marsha came over to do the exam and I had Lola sit & told her to Wait. This worked beautifully!! She didn't jump or move (but she did give Marsha a couple kisses) One of my concerns for her is she's too friendly & wants to jump on people & kiss them in the face. We had a great class & I'm very hopeful that Lola is going to be a normal dog one day. I just have to put the time in now till she matures. I went through the exact same thing with Penny & Penny is perfect (almost). We'll get there.

Lola loves to sit on the couch & watch TV. Notice how she sits like a person.

Training progress (1-16-07)

Sherman - My boy is in heaven! It was 30 degrees during our walk & he had an amazing spring in his step. (Sherman has a very thick heavy undercoat and one of the 10+ breeds in him is probably something Nordic. Probably Husky...may be why he hates them so much). Our walks have become so much fun. A lot less sniffing & a lot more running. I can call him away from things much easier. At intersections, what was once "Sherman, Stop...Sit...Wait" is now mostly automatic or Stop (he then Sits & Waits).

Lola - bundled the little skinny girl up in Penny's coat & off we went. I've had an attitude adjustment & it shows. I'm becoming more assertive with her, which gives me more confidence and, in turn, her more confidence. There was about 10 seconds of stress whining/growling on the porch and zero barking at other dogs/people. We saw all kinds of people & 2 dogs. When she saw the dogs I told her Leave It and she'd turn her attention to me. She did get a little anxious when we turned on our street, but I asked for attention & we did some heeling & she calmed down immediately. These are the good days!

Penny - took her to Ruth's Advanced class. Penny hasn't been to class for a while but didn't miss a step. Ruth commented on how great her Attention was. We practiced lots Heeling w/ distractions, Recalls, lots of Sit & Down Stays & Stand for Exam. I learned something new about Penny. We've never done much with Stand. She doesn't know the cue & won't Stand from a Sit & usually Sits when placed in a Stand. It's always something I've wanted to work on, just never do. But tonight, I helped her into a Stand & told her to Stay & she didn't budge. Ruth came around for the exam and she glanced at her but held her Stay. Hmmm....interesting. She's such a good dog!

After 4 straight days of rain (and 50 temps), my yard is a total mess. Not that it wasn't a mess before, but the mud I've been cleaning up has been outta control.



Then today the temp fell to the mid-20s & a little snow actually fell.

While the girls don't actually like the cold, the blast of cold air at lunchtime shot them with a jolt of energy.

Yes, Penny has to deal with this crap from Lola on a daily basis (poor girl!). Her own personal step stool.

Introducing Sherman...the Slayer of all great big Evil Hedgehogs!!!

"First, I crush him with my powerful jaws!!!"

"Next I savor the kill.."

"Then I chew his body apart limb from limb"



"I rest"...I am Sherman, after all.

"Then I drag him to my Secret Lair...where I will devour him when I wake from my slumber."

"You all know what comes next. No need to document it. I don't have to remind you what happened to Santa"

It was all over in a few seconds...

The weather has rained on our training parade. The girls hate getting wet (divas that they are) so we stayed inside tonight & did some fun stuff.

Training progress:

Sherman

"I'm perfect & I don't need no stinkin' training. Give me treats for just lookin' good!"

Penny:

Poor Penny is really bad at shaping. I ruined all fun clicker stuff for her by using it to teach attention. Granted, she has amazing attention, but she does nothing but stare a hole into my head. I'm not good enough at this clicker stuff yet (but will be after the Clicker Expo in March!!). Tried for 20 minutes to shape her Go to Mat.

"How 'bout I just stare at you??? C'mon...Click, please!"

We managed to get one bony butt cheek on, but that took a lot of tossing the treat on the mat (c/t), she sits on it (c/t, tossing it away).

Finished her up with some quarter turns and automatic sits. She does love to heel. Weird dog.

Lola

Did some Go to Mat (her favorite clicking game)...got up to 22 seconds, did some targeting...used the target stick to teach Spin (c/t me! Faded the target stick and had her Spinning on cue in about 2 minutes!). Finished by practicing Stays w/ distance and duration...got to 25 seconds & distance of a room. We don't practice this nearly enough. (Note to self - Work on Stays!! But they're so booorrringg!).

"See Mom, I can Stay!"

Apparently, it's Love Thursday! I'm following the lead of Charlie & CoCo's Mom

For Sherman, who is the reason I love dogs.

For Penny, who is the reason I love training dogs.

and For Lola, who is helping me become a better person.

Pet Owner's 10 Commandments

1. My life is likely to last 10 to 15 years. Any separation from you will be very painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want from me. Do not break my spirit with your temper, though I will always forgive you. Your patience and understanding will teach me more quickly those things you want me to learn.

3. Treat me kindly, my beloved friend, for no heart in all the world is more grateful for your kindness than mine. Don't be angry with me for long, and don't lock me up as punishment. After all, you have your job, your friends, your entertainment. I have only you.

4. Speak to me often. Even if I don't understand all your words, I understand your voice when it's speaking to me. Your voice is the sweetest sound I ever hear, as you must know by my enthusiastic excitement when your footsteps fall upon my waiting ear.

5. Please take me inside when it's cold and wet. I'm a domestic animal and no longer am accustomed to the bitter elements. I ask for little more than your gentle hands petting me.

6. Keep my bowl filled with clean water; I cannot tell you when I'm thirsty. Feed me good food so that I may stay well, to romp and play and do your bidding, to be by your side, and stand ready, willing and able to share with you my life, for that is what I live for. However you treat me, I'll never forget it.

7. Don't hit me. Remember, I have teeth that could easily crush the bones in your hand, but I choose not to bite you.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I am not getting the right food, I've been out in the sun too long, or my heart is getting old and weak.

9. Take care of me when I get old. You will grow old, too.

10. When I am very old, when I no longer enjoy good health, please do not make heroic efforts to keep me going. I am not having fun. Just see to it that my trusting life is taken gently. And be with me on that difficult journey when it is time to say "goodbye". Never say, "I can't bear to watch." Everything is easier for me when you are there. I will leave this earth knowing with my last breath that my fate was always safest in your hands. Remember - I love you.

Training progress:

Sherman - actually worked on recalls & getting him to come away from sniffing stuff. I used to have the seven second sniff rule, but even seven seconds is to long. He sniffs forever!

Penny - Changed direction about 6 times. Got excellent LLW for 90% of the walk. Practiced heeling and stays on the porch. Two Beardies took us by surprise & Penny tensed but didn't flip out.

Lola - Used the EW & rubbed her with Chill Out before we left. The front porch is an issue. We really need to work on that...very tense body, "sharking" food and baby growls. Waited till she was calm(er) & could focus on me. Stuck to the front street. After about 30 seconds she was calm & taking food gently. She walks very well & is rarely out of heel position (although I don't ask for it). Good attention & I mixed in some targeting and automatic sits. Practiced some downs and attention in the front yard & she was startled by my neighbor, who she loves. Woofed a few times till she realized who it was & then went wiggling over to say hello. She was kinda frantic in her greeting...lots of jumping and trying to lick his face. He offered to work w/ me one day during daylight hours with her.

Sorry to be MIA...came down on Sunday with the Stomach Flu. Poor dogs had to be cooped up in the house with me for 3 days. By today, they felt they had given me enough "therapy" (aka snuggling with me on the couch) and were chomping at the bit.

Thank you to Laura for the info on Charlie's ears. Ironically, Lola's ears have pretty much healed (almost...after of course, I bought 2 economy size packs of gauze!). My friend Annette suggested cutting off the sleeve of an old t-shirt to wrap around her head & I thought that was just genius. We may try one or both solutions should we need them. The more Boxer people I talk to, the more common I'm finding this problem is. I've hear horror stories of kitchen walls splattered with blood!

Pappy's fella had a question on Lola's training progress and if I understand correctly, he wanted to know if she settled down once the dog had past. The answer to this is yes, but what I'm trying to accomplish with Lola is for her not to woof at all. The ultimate scenario would be for her to see a dog & look at me for direction. HA!!!...yeah right, you say. Well, it takes time but it's definately possible. Penny was very reactive to other dogs & I've gotten her to the point where 85% of the time she can see another dog & when I tell her "Leave it", she looks to me & ignores the other dog. Ideally I wouldn't have to tell her anything, but I'm OK with where things stand now. Lola is most likely going to take a while to get to that point b/c I haven't done as good a job with her as I thought. We're basically starting over & I've got a lot of work to do.

Another trio of dogs has tagged us for our 2007 New Year's Resolutions. Well, I've already listed out my goals for '07 (kind of a resolution), but I'm going to list out some resolutions for each dog (kind of a little twist on the game!)

Sherman - lose 2 more lbs (hey, I was down 2 in '06!)...be nicer to the girls (& maybe even share my toys with Lola)...get serious about my hunting.

Penny - stop thinking I'm fat & gain 5 lbs...make Mom's life easier & have nice leash manners 100% of the time...do more fun training stuff & maybe give Rally a try.

Lola - no more Woofing at other dogs...become a Canine Good Citizen...get out of my stupid crate while Mom & Dad are at work.

We're only going to tag Splash, b/c that's the first blog Mom ever read & she thinks he's funny.

Training progress:

Nada - back to work tomorrow!

After a long day at Camp Bow Wow, Lola is pooped. What a better place to rest than on her best friend Penny!!

Sherman, who only snuggles with Mom, prefers to crash in the bolster bed. Looks pretty comfy if you ask me!

Laura, Charlie's mom, saw Lola's ear issues & quickly jumped in to offer a solution (Thank you again, Laura!). Not having any gauze, I tried Vet Wrap.

Mmmm 'kay...that worked for about 10 minutes (long enough for me to take pics hee hee!!) and then she rolled it back onto her neck & it was really tight & I started to freak & think she'd turn blue. So we took it off. And she immediately shook her head as hard as she could & broke the ear open again! AAAaaahhhhh!

Yes, Lola looks like a little old lady in a babushka!

Can you just see her plotting my death in her head????

And just to show how pissed she was about the whole "wrapping the head up in hot pink Vet Wrap" thing...she stole the roll off the coffee table and attempted to chew it up to prevent further embarrassment.

Little does she know that I have add'l rolls in blue & red...mmmwwhhhaaaaa!!!!

OK now Laura...couple of questions. Were Charlie's ear flipped back or flattened to his head? Cause he doesn't look like Lola did. And how long did you keep the gauze on? All the time? Or did he get time off to let his ears breathe? How many days till he was healed?

(This is sweet, sweet Charlie everyone! I stole his pic from Laura's Blog!)

He doesn't look much happier than Lola did, huh? But, I'm gonna pick up some gauze tomorrow (probably breathes better too).

Training progress (01/04/07):

Penny - I love this dog. I really, really, really love this dog. Two days into our new LLW protocol & she is damn near perfect. Started with lots of direction changes to get her focus on me. Didn't take long. Stopped on the side streets & did stays, recalls & heeling. Ran/jogged for the last 1/2 block. Penny loved it!! I'm trying very hard to keep things super duper fun for her (I have a tendancy to be too serious w/ PW) and there is a noticable difference.

Lola - Didn't start out too well. The second we walked outside...jingle, jingle...here comes another dog. Wooffffff!!!! Back in the house. Reinforced her for being calm & went on the porch. She was a little stressed, but managed to do sits, downs & touch and we left once she was calm. She saw a big trash can (it was dark outside) and woofed but I took her over to inspect it & once she sniffed she looked at me "So, what's the big deal??" Took her a while to focus on me (used direction changes & circles) but got great eye contact & heeling about 2 minutes in. She started to stress at the end of the street (there is another Boxer around the bend that always Woofs at her) so we just stayed on our street & worked both sides. Finished on the porch with lots of eye contact, downs & stays.

I added some additional Goals for 2007 to my list and one of them is to include our training progress in my blog entries (yinz guys can just skip over that stuff...it's more of a record for me). So that's gonna be at the bottom of my posts. Or it will be all I post...depending on what's going on.

Now for the fun stuff!

Scott & I (finally) moved the ottoman from the dining room to our bedroom. It was taking up way too much room & blocking our beautiful new sofa table. The Dogs have always loved hanging out on ottoman so I figured they'd enjoy it upstairs too. I threw one of the dog beds on it to get it out of the way (we're running out of room for all this stuf!)

Guess who made herself comfy?

"And it's even better if you throw my blanky on it!"

Training progress (1/3/07):

Penny - LLW was decent...immediately changed directions if the leash was taut. Had to do that a handful of times. Concentrated on really reinforcing her voluntarily checking in. Did lots of fun heeling stuff (zig zagging, running, changing directions...basically making an ass out of myself in front of my neighbors). Practiced some stays on the front porch (LOTS of distractions). Pushed her too long and then backed up and did some shorter sit & down stays. Much better. Taught her a new trick, Whack! (in a down, she slams her paw on the ground...think "whack a mole")...didn't add a cue yet.

(I spent the part of my day off watching Pam Dennison's Camp R.E.W.A.R.D DVD & found my faith again. It was a good kick in the butt & reminded me of what I need to be doing with Lola.)

Lola - I gave her a big kiss & told her I did not hate her, did not want to leave her in the woods & was not sorry we ever got her (all things I said on Tuesday on the way home...mean Mommy :o(. ) I love her & we'll work together to fix her problem. So off we went. Worked on her being calm on the front porch before the walk (she starts to stress the second we're out the front door)...did very well. Asked her for a couple behaviors before we went (sit & touch). Heeled down both steps beautifully. Worked a TON on attention & her automatically checking in with me. She was stellar! Changed directions if she lost focus (only happened 3 times). Did lots of back up recalls (Recently Lola thinks Come means stare at me then run away). Had a party any time we heard a dog bark (me clapping and saying Yeahhhh and feeding her). Saw another dog by the Vets...she looked at it, looked at me (another party) and we turned around. She did not bark ONCE!!! Finished with some more behaviors on the porch (down, touch, stay, come). We're going to be doing a lot of work in the front yard from now on.

It was a very good night!

Poor Lola has shredded her ear. And we can't get it to heal. When she wakes up in her crate, the first thing she does is a full body shake. This slams the tips of her ears against the bars and while she initially broke both of them open, the right one has healed. The left one is a mess. I've been using a liquid bandage but that's done nothing.









The final step is a Elizabethan (Cone Head) collar which she will hate!!!! I pick it up tonight.

"You are not serious about that, are you?"