Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Always waiting...

As Lola tends to lack patience in a lot of situations, we do a lot of work on increasing her self control. It can be a tedous process but in the long run, has taught me to be more patient. She's cerainly not where I would like her to be, but she's still techically a puppy.

"I'm always WAITING!!!

To get out of the car...


To go outside...

To eat my dinner...

To chase my ball...

To get my picture taken...

It's a ruff life, I'll tell ya!"

We had the Advanced Basic class tonight & and for some reason she was pretty keyed up. I really should walk her or run her hard around the yard before we go. I suspect she'd be more mellow. She was pretty snarky with the other two dogs in class and had one minor meltdown (I define meltdown as she completely loses her mind barking & lunging & cannot refocus on me at all).

But overall, she did well. She has wonderful name recognition and attention (and having the instructor comment on that is fantistic positive reinforcement for me!). Her heeling was sloppy and she continues to swing out on the halts. Her Stays were decent...her SitStay has drastically improved but her DownStay has suffered (probably b/c I've been working on the Sits!). She only jumped on Ruth once during the Sit for Exam. Her Stand is non-existant.

We did some of "Go Wild & Freeze" and she has an incredibly fast Automatic Sit. In our house, there is a pretty strict Sit for Everything rule & She who sits first, is rewarded first. I say She b/c after at least 2 years of inforcing this rule, Sherman still doesn't get it.

During her Recalls, she held her Stay every time, which I was very pleased (and surprised by), but she only came to me 2 out of 4 times I called her. The other two she veered off to check out Ruth's dog who was chillin' in his crate. Fortunately I had a long line on her & stopped her before she reached her destination. As soon as I call her again, she came right to me. I'm pretty sure she can pass the CGC & TDI will probably test her over the Summer. Why not?