As if I needed another reason not to want kids...the little brats in my neighborhood gave me one today. Scotty took Lola on a walk & I got to walk Sherman & Penny. As it was a gorgeous day and I knew CA ave would be crawling w/ people walking their dogs, I took them through the neighborhood. Shortly after leaving the house we walk toward two boys riding their bikes. They make no attempt to share the sidewalk & kept coming in our direction. I pulled S&P over to the side as there was no indication that they were going to go onto the street and they just rode past us. I stood there for a minute thinking "Wait a minute...I'm the one that pays the taxes for this stupid sidewalk & I'm the grownup here. They should have stopped & let ME pass".

So we kept going & I was still irked by the whole thing b/c I detest bratty, obnoxious kids. Then about 1/2 a block down the street I hear what sounds like an industrial fan followed by a SSSCCRREACHHHH behind me as the kids hit their brakes & ride up on the hill side right next to us. I jump about 10 feet in the air, Penny whips around...teeth bared, hackles up, fire in her eyes...and the little punk is standing there w/a smirk on his face that I had to restrain myself from knocking right off his stupid little face.

"Ya know...that's a great way to get yourself bit" Still smirking "And if you don't think that my dog is quicker than you, try it again & we'll see how fast it takes her to latch onto your leg" Smirk slowly turns into a frown.

Sheesh! So we continue on our walk & on the way back I have to pass by the same kid...still riding his bike down the sidewalk. So I just crossed the street. More for his safetly than mine b/c if he pulled that again, I would have to level him. Out comes Mom from the house...calling him to come in. Little brat starts giving her more backtalk than I did in my whole career as a kid. Mom continues to call him & he continues to backtalk her. I can still hear them when I'm a block away.

So I start thinking...maybe it's not the kids I hate...maybe it's the parents.

It was incredibly beautiful today & I took advantage of the nice weather by taking Lola for another walk. More of the same from yesterday...she was near perfect. She did start to pull a bit in the beginning, but after two or three times stopping, she got the point. Toward the end of the walk, she really started to lag behind. She'd just stand there & stare at me. I think the walk might have been a bit long for her (about 25 minutes). I picked her up and carried her about 25 steps, put her down & she was fine.

I like this block though b/c it exposes her to lots of different things. If the weather holds out tomorrow, I may drive her up to Bellevue & walk her through that section of CA Ave. She'll get all kinds of exposure there!!

We had a very good training session tonight. I started w/ Attention. She getting really good at this. Of course there are no distractions and I need to start adding in small ones. There's time for that. Then we started working on Down again. I lured it about 10 times & then just started using my finger to target the spot. She was confused at first, but I waited it out & she got it in a short time. Then the phone rang & it was my Mom. While talking on the phone I was careful to
keep my eye on her b/c she was still in the Zone. She offered quite a few Sits which I C/T and then I stopped rewarding Sit. I ignored while I talked on the phone & wouldn't ya know it...she slid into a Down & stared a hole in my head! Jackpot! The last treat I threw away from her so she'd have to get up. She walked back over to me & plopped into another Down! We continued this about 15 more times & then I ran out of food. I threw a toy at her & we played Fetch for a minute or two. She may graduate after all!

I took Lola on her first real walk tonight. My plan was to see how she did to the end of the street & then go further if she wasn't pulling. As I haven't really done any LLW training yet, I decided to put Penny's Easy Walk harness on her & see what would happen. She's gotten so big that if I tighten the harness as far as it will go, it fits her.

We had a blast. Lola was so fascinated w/ everything and took it all in stride. She got to meet the two Bearded Collies that live on our block & was as sweet as could be. When we hit California Avenue, she was exposed to all kinds of new things...kids on bikes, a bus, another dog across the street & a very loud power generator. She also met a nice little girl (and jumped on her more than I would like) and her mom. She didn't pull at all and alternated sticking by my side and getting brave & walking ahead of me a bit. I really like that when she's unsure about something, she turns to me rather than reacts. I reinforced that a lot. I didn't take any treats w/ me b/c I knew she wouldn't take them. Turns out I didn't need them.

We did it! I love this puppy! I was bound & determined to get Lola to get Down tonight. I've tried lots of things short of shoving her on the floor (which I obviously would never do). Luring didn't work, surprisingly...the old fashioned way (puppy in a sit, draw a line to the floor & out), under the knee, on the stairs, under a chair...nada. I tried caputuring a down (ummm...she's 15 weeks, she doesn't lay down much!), but nothing. Admittedly, I really didn't put a lot of time into this behavior, so I'm committing myself to getting a nice Down on cue from her by Saturday.

Took about 3 minutes and a hunk of cheese. Geez. And I thought this was gonna be hard. Looking back, I realized I tried to get this from her in class or while S&P were nearby....too much distraction. I got about 20 Downs & 25 puppy pushups. By the end I was able to fade the lure and use my finger as a target. We practiced Attention and then called it a night.

After a couple of weeks of quiet nights, the last few days have brought on a fun new late night event. Shrill, ear splitting barking at 2:00 in the morning. Started on Friday...Scott was sound asleep (thanks to the Penn Brewery) & slept through the whole thing. She barked for about 15 minutes. I waited it out & she eventually barked herself to sleep. Saturday night, she started at around 1:30. I was willing to ignore her again, but Scotty was not so patient. After about 90 seconds, he screamed "SHUT THE (insert 4 letter word) UP!!!!". Surprisingly, that didn't work (grin) so he went downstairs to sleep on the couch. I pulled her crate next to the bed and went back to week 1 of putting my hand at the front of the door. About 30 seconds of whining & I got the "I give up" sigh and heard her plop onto the dog bed. The snoring started about 60 seonds later. Sunday night I heard her whining & didn't wait for the barking to start. I pulled the crate next to the bed & she was silent the rest of the night. I think I'm getting smarter.

2nd class at WPHS. My mom & I went to lunch at Bravo & then she came with me. I love this class! Marsha is fantastic...and her assistant is really great too. The puppies had a chance to run around at the beginning of class and as you can see...Lola is no wallflower!

She's the white blur in the middle

The brown one is Lola's boyfriend...Chester. He was cheating on her in this shot.

Lola and her buddy Sadie. These two play together for the majority of the play time.

After about 10 minutes, we all got down on the floor and got the puppies into a Settle. I didn't get Lola to lay down, but she was Standing & Sitting w/o any barking or fussing the entire time. Next week we're going to be trimming nails so we also did some handling of feet. Lola's not a big fan of handling yet. We did some more work on Sit & Attention, reviewing what was learned last week. Lola has great attention at home and I need to gradually work on it w/ distractions. This is trying to move from point A to Z! Yet another thing to work on this week. Her Sit is great as she has to do it at least 50 times per day for anything she wants. Two things new for the week were Come & Wait. Marsha empahasised that she wants us to learn real life behaviors and will get to the fun stuff later.

For Come, we basically walked away from the puppies, called them to us and rewarded them. Lola had no problems with this. Wait was "wait at the door for me to go through first". Lola knows wait at the back door to go out, but this has not been transferred to any other doors. But she did fine. The hardest part was getting her to sit when she knew there was a fun puppy right behind her!!

The final thing we did was discuss luring. Marsha demonstrated the concept by having the puppies Spin. This was a piece of cake for us!

4th puppy class at AF. Lola has finally emerged from her shell & loves to play w/ the other puppies. We reviewed Leave it, Come & Drop it from last week and did some more work on Down. **Nope...I am not laying down no matter how much peanut butter is involved!!** ~sigh~ Looks like I need to get my butt back in the bathroom. We WILL be able to down by graduation!!

Snow is delicious!!

We were supposed to get this huge snow storm this weekend, but it blew east & missed us. We did get some snow...enough for the girls to run around in. Lola has taken a liking to eating it.

So the funniest thing that happened all day...Penny squished herself in Lola's crate. B/c the crate in the bedroom is still too big, I took the "roof" off of the little plastic crate. This is the perfect size for her b/c she can stand up & lay down very comfortably but I've blocked off all of the extra room so she can't pee in it.

Apparently Penny misses her crate b/c this is how Scotty found her at bedtime.

Sorry Sweetpea...but you don't fit!

I had a bit of a breakthrough tonight...not only w/ Lola, but w/ myself. I was actually successful free shaping a behavior! This is a big deal to me b/c I've attempted this w/ Penny & just end up frustrated. I have the patience of...well, a puppy! But Lola is a clean slate and I thought I'd really give it a go. I gave myself 15 minutes to free shape Go to Mat. I put a blanket in the middle of the floor in the bedroom & then sat down on the bed. Lola went through her best behaviors...sit, attention & targeting (my hand). This was my warm up. Then I waited. She sat & stared for 20 seconds...then her head turned toward the blanket (C/T). 5 more seconds...head turn (C/T)...body turn (C/T)...walk toward blanket (C/T)...front feet on blanket (C/T), etc. It took 7 minutes before she was running to the blanket w/ all 4 feet in a little puppy sit. Yippee! Success!! Ideally I want her to lay down, but I stopped w/ our victory.

Without even realizing it, I have been gearing my training toward Sue Ailsby's Levels.

http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/%20Dog1/levels.html

I've referenced her website on more than one occasion and have read & re-read Stich's Blog many times. But I was looking at it this weekend & realized...Lola was just about ready to pass level 1. I need to work more on Down, but we're a nosehair short of passing. Not too shabby @ 15 weeks. We also have a nice start on Level 2.

I'm focusing on this right now so I can get a clear picture of just what I'm trying to teach Lola. Level 2 is the basic behaviors I really feel all dogs should have. Does this mean Sherman & Penny could pass Level 2??? Ha!! Penny could (w/ the exception of Distance...I could have her doing that in a day)...Sherman No. But I think I could get him to pass w/in a week if I worked w/ him every day. Do I see a challenge for myself??? Maybe.

I do think too many behaviors are added between Level 1 & 2. But I didn't make the whole thing up, did I??? Maybe I'll make up my own Level 1.5.

I'm hoping Debby will be my tester. I really want to do this right & have someone "judge" my progress. It's way more fullfilling that way.

Today was the day to recover from the SuperBowl. I'm pretty sure I had every muscle clentched during the entire game b/c I feel like I've been hit by a truck.

Lola also had a trip to the vet. I'm lucky that I can walk there so I took the opportunity to practice our LLW. Right now Lola's idea of walking on leash consists of flinging herself out in all directions so she can check out everything in sight. This is fine w/ me as long as the leash doesn't get tight. When she hits the end of the leash, I say "Whoops!" and stop moving. Takes about 3 seconds for her to turn and look at me ("What'd ya stop for??") and then another 10 seconds for her to get frustrated and turn back to me. I then say "Let's go" and we continue walking. A 3 minute walk took us about 15 minutes.

My little girl is now 18 lbs!! I knew it! She's doubled in size since we brought her home. She had her last set of shots and doesn't need to go back till May, when she'll be spayed. I had them trim her nails b/c I haven't gotten up the nerve to do it myself. I've never had to do S&P's nails b/c they get walked everyday & their nails are naturally warn down. So the vet tech restrained Lola while Dr. Nagle chopped her feet off...kidding, of course but that's what you would have thought she was doing by the way Lola was screaming. So now I need to teach little Miss Full of Herself to tolerate being restrained.

SuperBowl Sunday!! WooHoo! We're having a little party for the big game, but before the guests arrive, Lola has her first puppy class @ the WPHS.

When we got there, I noticed there were a lot more puppies there than I expected. And what I was very pleased with...all different kinds of people. Different ages, different races, different sexes...all very good flor Lola's socialization. She did, of course, think they were all there to play with her. We started class by letting the puppies off leash. Lola took off like a bullet. First she ran to the people and wiggled around getting pets...then she realized there were other puppies around! She zeroed in on a yellow lab puppy and decided that would be her playmate for the day. My scared little girl gots some guts in class yesterday and you really would never know she was afraid before. I personally think this has to do w/ how young she was when class started. I guess all puppies are different and 12 weeks was just too early for Lola to start. Apparently 14 weeks is just right.

The pups played for 10 minutes or so and then we rounded them up to start the class. The first thing we worked on was settle. Marsha teaches this differently than AF does. She had us get down on the floor and gently restrain the puppies. The idea is to get the puppy to lay on it's side and run your hand down it's body from head to the tip of the tail. After about 2 minutes, everyone puppy was relaxed and getting lots of love from their owners...except Lola.

**I do NOT want to settle! I want to play with the other puppies! Let me go!!!!**. This protest continued for a while and she finally gave in. I am quite sure this little outburst was due to the fact that she was very overtired. Lola & Penny had played for about 3 hours and Lola took little random naps all morning, but never really got any serious snooze time. I need to remember this for next time.

We did some work on Sit and Attention and this went very well. I had about 80% complaince on both behaviors. Class wrapped up & we headed home to get ready for the big game.

We had about 10 people over for the game & let me tell you...it was stressful. I was sweating the whole time!! But the boys in Black & Gold brought it home!

Thanks for a great Season boys...see ya in September!!

I went to Kuhn's this morning and asked the butcher if they had any marrow bones & "soup meat" in the back. She brought out a tray of really nice marrow bones and asked how many dogs I have. I told her I'd by soup meat by truckload if they had it & she said that chicken is on sale this week so I should call on Friday & they would package me up a boatload. It's the trimmings from the chicken breasts & they'll give it to me for 59cents/lb! They also gave me a package of liver trimmings (which was just small pieces of liver) for 28cents. I love Kuhn's!!

We had our 3rd puppy class at AF today. There were only 1/2 of the puppies there most likely b/c of the Super Bowl. It actually made for a nice size class. Lola definately thought so. There were about 5 puppies total & I suppose that was less intimidating for her. The first play session she only ran to hide under the chair twice. The second one she really got into it & showed very little fear.

We reviewed LLW and did some recalls. Lola is doing pretty well w/ both of those. The new things for the week were Down & Drop it. We haven't done much w/ down and she was not interested in laying down at all. This is something I really need to work on before next week.

Friday night in the Steel City. The Super Bowl is upon us & the whole town in covered in black & gold. Just a little side note...I'm a huge Steeler fan. Not a fair weather fan...a win, lose or draw fan. It all started in college when my roomate, Katie, (during my 5th year at IUP) refused to let us do anything on Sundays but watch football. She was actually pretty good at explaining stuff & HEY...it was 1995. A coincidence? I think not.

I went to a Super Bowl party that year w/ a couple other college friends and I don't need to tell you...we lost. Sad to see grown men crying in their beer. But I was hooked and loved the game ever since.

10 years later and we're back! This town has come alive! Pittsburgh really is a "Town". The greatest "Little" Big City in the USA. I love it here & despite my complaints about the winters...will most likely never leave. And we sure do love our football. From the little old ladies in their sparkly Steelers gear to the big, brawny men in the way-too-big Big Ben jerseys.

When we decided to get another dog, I did a lot of research. I chose the breeder route (for reasons too long to lay out) and started thinking about what puppy we might get. Being the B&G gal that I am...I wanted my Steeler Fever to show in our new puppy! I had it all picked out even before the litter was born!

If we would have decided to get a boy ...his name probably would have been Milo (SteelCity Mile O' Minute) or Bettis (SteelCity BusDriver) ..but we decided on a girl. If she were Fawn, she would have been "Rooney Steel my Heart" (aka Stella) and if she were white..."SteelCity Copacabana" (aka Lola). The little white gal w/ the fawn eyepatch won me over & Lola really is "K&L's SteelCity Copacabana". She's named after my beloved Black & Gold (and the Steelers main man, Myron).

Time to take a deep breath & chant "Let's go Steelers!". It truly is fate that we get "one for the thumb" this year. My favorite big man, #36, is back in his home town. We gotta win!!!!

HERE WE GO.. STEELERS....HERE WE GO!!!!!

I didn't do a whole lot tonight other than try to catch a few pics of the pups in their Steeler gear. After 20 minutes of attempts, I only got two decent ones.

I did switch Lola out of the small plastic crate and into the big wire crate. I was expecting a sleepless night, but she just got in the crate & went to sleep. I guess I need more confidence in her. The crying & screaming during the day has just about finished. I still have a fight getting her in there, but she will clean out a PB bone and I throw a handful of goodies for her to hunt & find. We are making progress!

Lola continues to get bigger (and heavier!). She has a vet appt. this Friday and I'll be anxious to see what she's up to. I'm guessing 18lbs.

She's almost sleeping through the night. The past 3 or 4 nights, I hear her stirring & scratching on the sides & the door of the crate, so I open the crate to let her out & she just stays there. So I shut the door again & then she starts crying. So, last night I decided to just leave her when the scratching starts and she goes till 5:00...then starts to cry. I take her out & when I come back, I feel inside the crate & she's peed in it! She's never peed in her nighttime crate. So I guess I'm expecting too much or need to withhold the water earlier. She had been out at 10:30. We're transitioning into the bigger wire crate tomorrow. She just fits in the plastic crate, but cannot sit up the whole way.

Tonight we worked more on eye contact and targeting and started "down". I haven't really added the cues yet, but will start this week. She's holding eye contact for 8-10 seconds before looking away and targeting at about a foot away. I've only had her target my hand at this point, but will add the target stick (or in our case...wooden spoon) later in the week too.

I've really tightened up the reigns on Sherman this week. Tonight I had him hold a down stay for about 30 minutes while Penny & Lola played. Sherman feels the need to intervine during their play sessions, breaking the whole thing up. He shoots across the room and gets in Penny's face or steals the toy they're playing with. Scott & I have taken a liking to calling him the "Fun Police" (a term I stole from Amy R. of PghDogs). We make siren sounds when he's patroling their play. Lola tries to play w/ him but he just puts her on the ground. Penny now refuses to play w/ him. He'll bring her a toy or try to tug on a toy she has...and she just drops it & walks away. He gets what he deserves. He's really been mean to Penny. He does get play time w/ Scott & I everyday so he's not terribly neglected .

Anyway, Sherman's never really been big on Stay. I've gotten him to the point where he'll Sit Stay w/o distractions, but I've never really tested him on the Down Stay. So tonight he laid at my feet while I was at the computer and observed the girls having a blast. 4 or 5 times he inched up in position to pounce, but settled down with one little "Uh Uh!" I've also made him hold the wait longer at doors and while the girls eat. Sherman finishes his meal in record time & really likes to hover around waiting for Penny to spit out some kibble or Lola to leave her bowl to check out something in the living room. He now has to sit on the rug, about 8 feet away from both of them and wait. Once they are done and leave their bowls, I make him hold the wait for at least 30 seconds and then release him to clean up. It's so easy for me to get lazy w/ his NILIF, but his behavior is so much better when I enforce it.

I had orientation today for our puppy class at WPHS. Marsha is the instructor & I'm so excited for this class to start. I haven't taken any classes from her & have heard great things. We went over lots of stuff & spent a good deal of time talking about nutrition. I thought this was wonderful & is really missing from a lot of classes. We decided to have class next week even though it's Super Bowl Sunday. We'll be done by 3:00...home in plenty of time for kick-off.

Later in the evening I saw Molly outside w/ their Dach/BeagleX, Minnie. I decided this would be a good chance for Lola to meet them so we took both dogs into the back yard & let them run around. I'm realizing that while Penny is very good w/ Lola, she lets her get away w/ entirely too much. Lola was jumping on Minnie's head, biting her ears & legs...all the stuff she does w/ Penny. Penny will put a stop to it after a while, but poor Minnie was visably stressed out. So we kept the meeting short and let Minnie escape the little white Tasmanian Devil.

Mmmm 'kay...remind me again. Why did I want a puppy? For the life of me...I can't remember. I was just thinking back to the lazy Saturday nights I used to have before the "holy terror" entered our house. ~sigh~.

In the last hour that I've been catching up on email and stuff at the computer, I've gotten up 2 dozen times b/c of "the silence". Lola usually stays & plays in the bedroom right where I can see her. And she's done just that for 50 minutes of that hour. She's taken 8 or so toys out of the basket and has been doing a marvelous job of entertaining herself.


(Her imaginary friend that lives under the bed has been playing w/ her too).

But she keeps adding stuff to the toy pile that she retrieves during "the silence"...2 different socks, a big wool sweater from the dry cleaning pile, 1/2 dozen hair bands..mostly w/ gobs of my hair attached, 2 pieces of cellophane from the trash and (my personal favorite)...a pair of my dirty underwear from the laundry. And in between her scavanger hunts, she has taken great joy in racing from one side of the room to the other at warp speed (this is driving Sherman nuts).

But, back to Why again Did I Want a Puppy??? Oh DoG...b/c I laugh everytime I look at her w/ one of those silly things in her mouth. B/c I can't stop smiling when I watch her play...all by herself...w/ a toy twice as big as her. B/c during her rampages around the room, she stops to check in w/ Mom...plop into a sit so I'll pick her up and she smothers me w/ kisses. B/c I've never appreciated Sherman & Penny more. And I'm sad b/c the puppy breath is almost gone.

I have always wished that I could have seen Sherman & Penny as puppies. I get glimpses of what they would have looked like w/ the pups we get at the shelter...but I have no idea where either of them came from or how they were cared for as babies. I'd give anything to make sure their start in life was wonderful...and maybe they wouldn't have the issues they do now. I'll never regret holding Lola at 6 days old and watching her discover everything new. I try so hard not to take that for granted.

And I really do love having this puppy...especially right now when she's snoring like a log on Sherman's dog bed.

Second puppy class...I flew solo today. I need to get a harness for Lola so I can keep her in the back seat. On the way there, she insisted in walking back & forth between my lap & the passenger seat. Not safe. The crate doesn't fit in my car so I'd solved the problem in the past by keeping the dogs in the back, securing Sherman w/ a leash I'd tied in the trunk & slipped through the back seat. I really do need to get a larger vehicle...no car payment on a fuel efficient Civic is just too nice right now though.

Anyway, Lola walked in the building all by herself. She's doing pretty well w/ not pulling on the leash & when she does, I say "whoops!" and stop moving. Took 3 times before she figured out that a tight leash means we stop. Smart puppy. This was of course w/o distractions. Our problem surfaces when she sees people she knows (or kids). She is a people puppy for sure. That I am happy about...it can be used as a reward for good behavior.

We started class by reviewing what we went over last week. I didn't do any work on "settle" and it showed. That's my priority for this week. She's got a great sit & responds to her name 50% of the time. All those puppies are a terrible distraction! We have a very annoying frustration bark thing going on now. This is a problem at home too. Lola wants Sherman to play w/ her so very badly & he just lays there & glares at her. This puppy's got a set of lungs on her. I did some body blocking w/ her and took her outside a few times when she started being vocal.

New things for this week were "come" & "LLW". I do a lot of recall stuff at home and she did pretty well...blowing me off a couple of times for a tail in her face. LLW is fine & she's doing pretty well w/ that. I hope to have 1 dog that walks nicely on leash!

The play session went a little better. She starts under the chair but did come out to play a lot more than last week. When a big group of puppies hit her all at once...back under the chair we go. I try to stay close by so I can intervine if it becomes too much, but let her handle things on her own. On one of our "time-outs", we ran into a young BC mix that was having a private lesson. He was twice as big as Lola and that seemed to be more her liking. She did lots of play-bowing and was really excited to play. She just needs to get some confidence in herself. That will come.

It was 50 degrees & sunny so I took advantage of the day & took 3 walks. Sherman & I had a nice stroll through the neighborhood. All that boy needs is a 1/2 hour on his flexi & a little attention from Mom & he's happy as a clam. Penny & I went up to CA ave. and worked a little. We did lots of heeling w/ distractions. She was in heaven. She was so relaxed that when 2 Besenjis walked past us, she sat down on her own waited for them to pass. Atta girl! I really need to do this more often. A 15 minute walk w/ 1 dog is so much more beneficial than a 1/2 hour walk w/ 2. Lola & I just took a quick stroll down our street. She did really well & was unphased by an ambulance and an old loud car w/o a muffler. We met two young boys that were more than happy to help me train her. She was a wiggling, jumping, outta control puppy and they made her sit & then made a big fuss over her. Good puppy.

I had class from 4-6 (first class w/ dogs). It was a packed house, especially the first class. Saturday should have been called "dog day". I didn't take my bait bag of until 6:30!

What is up with the weather in Western PA??? It was another mild day for January...mid 40s. Last night we had thunderstorms. Thunderstorms!!?? In January?? I've never heard of such a thing. It's supposed to get cold & snow on Wednesday...Lola hasn't had much exposure to snow. This should be fun. For now...the pups are really loving this weather and their outside playtime.

We had another gathering for the AFC championship game.

Pittsburgh's going to the Superbowl!!!

Woo Hoo! What a game! Pittsburgh brought the big guns to Denver and upset the Broncos 34-17!

Everyone was pooped after the big game!