Before I took Penny to class, I walked Sherman & Lola, individually. Sherman is supposed to take the TDI test on Saturday & we haven't practiced much in the last couple of weeks. He's a good boy though. He shouldn't have much of a problem.

I gave Lola melatonin as soon as I got home & was anxious to see how it would affect the walk. I put her on the GL, despite the objection I've gotten from some. She seems to focus so much better and it almost seems to relax her. I'm learning to trust myself & listen to my dog. The GL made Penny way more reactive and she never really took to it. Lola seems to be a little different so we're going with it for now. We walked the whole block w/o a single flip out. It's much different for her now walking in the dark so I made sure to stop every couple of minutes & have her work. And anytime we saw a person, we'd move to the side & she'd sit & I'd feed her. She's been reactive to sound as well recently and a barking dog 2 towns away sets her off. Not tonight. I'd hear a dog bark & jump around like a moron chirpping "Lola, what do I have? and Who's a good girl??" and stuff her with liver brownies. She's getting better!

Penny & I had class at the Univ. of Pitt student union tonight. We had to park about 3 blocks away and she was more than willing to heel the whole way to the SU. Oakland is way more hustle & bustle than she's used to. She took it all in stride and was very calm as long as she was working. Any time she was allowed to stop & sniff & explore, she got a bit anxious. We met up with 5 other dogs...all of which she wanted desperately to play with. Nice change from my normally snarky Penny. We met lots & lots of students and she was in hog heaven...all those people there to pet & fawn over her! Towards the end of class she was over it, though & she'd had enough petting. The last exercise was walking through the Catherdral of Learning up & down step, through a quiet study area and moving through revolving doors. She did not like the last part. Those spinning doors freaked her out and I was grateful she did not have a tail. She moved through them 5 or 6 times and then was happy to head home.

Who doesn't love a Pittsburgh Autumn day???

Tonight was lazy & quiet at home. I ordered some really bad Chinese food (that I ended up throwing away) and watched the Dog Whisperer (Paul Owens, not Cesar)

Lola enjoyed watching too...let's hope she learned something.

Lola had her first Feisty Fido's class tonight. Walking into the building, we were surrounded by volunteers walking dogs...which of course, sent her into a full-out barking & lunging frenzy. Hmmm...not a good way to start out.

But class eneded up being great! There are 6 dogs per class and each dog is separated by an ex-pen covered with a sheet. Lola found this very annoying as there definately other dogs in the room for her to play with. But it did give us a chance to practice attention & focus. We were given several good things to practice. Some I knew & was doing (Watch, Hand-Targeting, U-turns) and a new exercise (Walk Away) that Lola picked up on quickly.

They had each dog view a giant stuffed Dalmation (that was pretty dog like) and practice Stuff a Dog...Lola loved this! Dog comes into view...Yahoo! Peanut Butter!!! Dog goes away...so does Peanut Butter :o(. I've tried this at home outside, but she is usually too worked up to eat. I have done something similar on the front deck & it worked very well. I'm gonna just keep moving in baby steps till she can relax outside.

I love to take random pics of the dogs in the sun. Some of them turn out kinda cool.

Happy 1st birthday to Lola!!! Her "technical" DOB is 10/30/05, but she was the 8th puppy to be born at 1:34 am on the 31st. She's a Halloween baby!

As a teeny sprout...

At 5 weeks...

Kissing her brother good-bye...

Hanging out with her bestest friend in the whole wide world, Penny...

Little thing could barely keep her eyes open after the first 36 hours at her new home...

Sherman would only (partially) tolerate her when they were both sleeping (I can almost hear him growling in this shot)

All grown up!

Having a puppy was fun, stressful, joyous & tiresome. I wouldn't trade our first year for the world but can't say that I'd ever get another puppy.

Well...we'll see.

Penny & I started the Dynamic Dogs class at the WPHS on Monday. This class is to give TDI dogs & their owners some experience doing therapy work before they venture out on their own. I was thrilled that they started this class b/c I was a little unsure about how to get started. It's taught by Marsha Robbins, who is exceptionally gifted with people and dogs. Lola & I took her puppy class and it was stellar.

The first 2 classes are at the shelter and then she takes us into the community for the last 5. And the class is incredible. We started out with basic obedience stuff to get the dogs comfortable with each other. Penny did very well with the other two dogs in class. One was Cowboy, who she's been in 3 classes with & knows well. The other was Tasha, one of the puppies in Lola puppy class last February (who is now huge!).

Marsha really put us through our paces. This class is tough! She really tests the dogs skills to get an idea of how they will be in different situations. (brag on Penny…she held her sit stay when Tasha broke and ran around her play bowing! I was very proud!). We discussed what our dogs are comfortable with & what they are not & she is tailoring the visits to the class.

We loaded all 3 dogs into the elevator & they all did great. Penny glued herself to my leg, but managed not to panic (she hates the elevator).

Next week we go to Pitt to visit with homesick college freshman (how cool is that??!!). We're also going to the Joseph something-or-other bookstore on the Southside and to a group home.

Marsha also invited Penny & I to do a bite prevention workshop at the Children's Museum. She's gonna LOVE that! All those little kiddies to give kisses to...what could be better than that?

Penny had her last Rally class today. Man, could she be great at this! I'm the problem. I don't know my left from my right & can't remember if I do the exercises before or after the stations. I also have 2 left feet and can't walk in a straight line. Very frustrating. But Penny is great. She's so attentive and willing to work with me. We did 2 courses about 3 times each. I

The only thing we still struggle with are the finishes. Other than blatently luring her, she freezes. She's great at hand targeting & that doesn't even work. I looked up some traditional methods and tried lightly popping the leash in the direction I wanted her to go and it did work. I'd like to get away from that as well so we'll just keep practicing.

Graduation Day for Lola at Animal Friends! Lola did surprisingly well and only barked at one dog going into the shelter. There were a couple of contests...one was a LLW relay race where we had to carry a glass of water. That went OK. We did timed Sits where Debby starts the clock and each person has to cue the dog to sit. Then we do it again w/o cueing, using only body language. Lola is stellar at this.

The best part was a contest between 2 dogs where they both have to sit while we put Leis over their head. They have to be sitting to get a lei. The one with the most leis wins. Lola ran away with this contest. The first one I put on her she kind of balked at and tried to eat. But then I slipped a treat in and she just sat their while I put 15 Leis on her. It was too cute.

We finished up w/ some agility stuff & she has no fear what-so-ever.

Sherman had CGC class today & I'm so proud of my grumpy boy. He's doing so very well & I don't have any fear about him passing. He did 2 great recalls, held his stays, heeled OK and didn't make a peep during a 2 1/2 minute supervised separation. We even did 2 dog to dog intros & he just sat by my side, wagged his tail & looked up at me with his famous Shermie grin. He's too darn cute!

It was a long day for Lola at Camp Bow Wow...

And a quiet peaceful evening for us....

The top picture, BTW, is on their home page. They really like Lola!

Lola will be a year old next week. She was just a pipsqueak at 3 months...


Now she's keeping up with the big dogs...


My goodness...could the be any cuter?! Yes...I'm totally biased!

I call this Penny's Princess Leia impression

Lilian was kind enough to squeeze us into this sessions Feisty Fidos class. As I'm still concerned that Lola is indeed in a fear period, I'm keeping her walks to a minimum and doing stuff with her in the yard & house.

We haven't done much clicker stuff in a while...I have signed up for the ClickerExpo in March & thought it would be fun to see where Lola was & try to shape a behavior. We had done "go to mat" a long time ago (9 months or so) but I never really continued with it. It was the first time I'd really shaped anything from the beginning. Debby & I had just had a conversation in the last class about shaping & I told her I didn't really do it much. She seemed surprised and when I thought about it, I guess I do.

So I brought out one of Lola's old puppy blankets & laid it down about 6 feet away from me. She started offering lots of previously highly reinforced behaviors...sit, down, stare holes in my head, Bang! Roll over, down, sit & so on...I decided to help her out & threw a treat on the mat and clicked when she stepped on it. I was following Sue Ailsby's method for Level 2 and within minutes she was throwing herself on the mat over & over. I moved it to a new place...same thing. I moved it again...same thing.

My good little girl...demonstrating "GoLayDown"


I Ssssoooo wish she wasn't having these issues b/c I would LOVE to take her with me in March. I don't think it's gonna happen this year :o(.

There has been a lot of talk on a lot of lists lately about tear staining. When Lola hit about 4 months, she started getting terrible tear stains in both eyes. I was wiping her eyes 3-4 times a day with a special solution called Eye Bright, and it really wasn't helping.

I posted about it on the WhiteBoxer list and several members made the recommendation of adding 2-3 TBS of pure pumpkin to her food w/ each meal and they should go away within a week. Only stipulation was it had to be with every meal or they would resurface & be twice as hard to clear up.

So, as pumpkin is something I feed my dogs anyway, I thought What The Heck! It sure ain't gonna hurt her. And wouldn't ya know it...within a week they were gone & have never resurfaced. I never wipe her eyes anymore (with the exception of the occasional morning eye booger that appears & just grosses me out).

Then (and this picture doesn't show how bad they really were):

Now:

I'm calling Pumpkin the new miracle food!

Penny & I had the best Rally Class yet. She was so wonderful. We did a couple new things that she & I had never done before. One was a moving down where you're heeling & when you stop, the dog has to go right into a down from a stand. It took 2-3 trys w/ me luring her and then she was just doing it on her own.

We also did Sit & Down Stays while you walk around the dog. Annette does this a ton in teaching stays and Penny knows it very well. We still need work on the finishes, but she's getting better. She did the slow pace station w/o sitting, which is a marked improvement. She sat a couple times on the 360 turn left. My turns were too tights. Once I made them bigger, she was fine.

Rally is lots of fun!!!

Lola went to Camp today for the first time in a month. I talked to the manager when I dropped her off & told her about Lola's newfound reactivity. She promised to keep an eye on her & watch for any signs of aggression toward other dogs. I watched her on the camper cam for part of the day & she was just fine. She was having a blast.

Sherman & Penny and I went for a nice hike at the park. Toward the end of the walk, we rounded a corner and a jogger & her (very chubby) JRT were coming toward us. I high-tailed it the other way & we went up on the hill a bit. I asked the dogs to sit (they did ~gasp~) and told them to Leave It and they didn't make a peep (~double gasp!!~). But the JRT started barking at them and the girl started KICKING him down the trail! I yelled "HEY!" but she had headphones on & didn't hear me. She just kept going...kicking him everytime he turned around & barked.

I really do hate people.

Now there is something you don't see every day.

Scott took Sherman on his walk tonight as I really wanted to get some time in w/ Lola.

I tried to get into the Feisty Fido class at Animal Friend which is taught by my friend Lilian. It's already full (it doesn't even start till January) but she agreed to do some private lessons w/ us. She also offered me some suggestions in the meantime. First of all, do away w/ the Gentle Leader...Sure! I can always go back to it if it I need to. I fit Lola w/ Sherman's old Senseation harness, grabbed my clicker & some good stuff & we walked outside through the backyard. Might as well start out w/ something totally new. Of course, being that it was 5:30, the whole flipping neighborhood & their dogs were outside. Lola immediately started stressing & barking and I back up into the yard again & did some basic obedience stuff to get her attention. When she was calm, I walked back out into the front of the house. I made sure to maintain a very high rate of reinforcement with her so she didn't have a chance to stress (I read enough about this crap...I'm finally getting that I actually have to DO it to be successful). She actually managed to remain calm even with lots of people milling around & trying to talk to me. Ugh! It's great to have nice neighbors but I need a big sign to wear around my neck that says "WE'RE WORKING! PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE!". Anyway, then Scott & Sherman came out & got her all worked up. I just changed directions and let them go on their merry way. We'd walk two houses...she'd stress. I'd back up and c/t when she was focused on me...turn around and make it 5 houses. She'd hear a dog bark two towns away and stress...back up and continue to c/t for attention & calm reaction to things. It went on this way for a while...2 houses, 5 houses, 3 houses, 2 houses, 8 houses...all & all we were outside for about 20 minutes and she did really well considering all of the commotion. Until a dog walked past the house & then she freaked. She did a scary bark at my neighbor...who she LOVES. That's not a good sign. He's cool about everything though & when I explained what I was doing, he said "Hey, when I hear that clicker, I know I have to ignore her". Finally! I'm gonna use him to help me.

Penny & I went for a walk next & this whole LLW thing is really sinking in. The first 1/2 a block is tough...she needs a lot of reminders. Then it's smooth sailing. I've been using primarily Be A Tree w/ her but am going to start doing Penalty Yards for the first part of the walk. She's a smart cookie. It won't take long. Then we need to move on to really distracting places to practice. By spring...we should be cookin'!

I had really nice walks w/ Sherman & Penny, despite the miserable weather. Penny pulled a bit at the beginning but by the end of our walk, she was perfect. I've been working on changing the length of the leash so she gets that it doesn't matter how long the leash is, it still has to be loose.

The stress from Lola's vet visit yesterday carried over to today & she was completely unnerved today. I didn't push her and kept our walk to about 2 minutes...literally. She was that freaked out. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.