Two Furballs, and a Couch...

Jilly is progressing right along with her training. Under the advice of a friend we have started reprimanding Jilly for barking at the cats. She very rarely barks, mainly at the cats and her reflection in the door. Of course, the cats generally growl or hiss at Jilly to begin with, but, their growling and hissing isn't nearly as loud, plus they won't be going outside where they think it will be acceptable to growl and hiss at everything. In the beginning we would try distracting Jilly with a squeaky toy or something, but she would be too caught up in interacting with the cats. So now I make my "aaaaah aaaaah aaaaah" sound, that I use on Sophie and she stops what she's doing, sits facing me, and looks. We started doing it last night, and today she let Elphie enter the living room and walk by without barking at all. She did run toward her, but she never gets too close to the cats, and she backs up from where she stops every time too.

She's becoming much better at using her ramp. Today she even grabbed her unicorn and took off down the ramp with it. She quickly tired of her unicorn and ran to her pen where she proceeded to remove every toy from her pen and place each one in the middle of the living room. The only downside to the ramp is that she takes all of her toys off the couch, so I have to get up and get them once she finally settles down on the couch.

We had one training session so far today, and she did *very* well. She is getting to be very good at sit, down, and stand. She sits without popping all the way up first from the down position. Just straight into sit. She is starting to respond to the positioning of my hand, not just following the treat. For example, I can ask her to sit from the down position with my hand over a foot from her nose, and she sits directly up, instead of coming toward the treat to sit. I'm not sure what to do with my hand during stand though. I'm just glad she's going into stand so well now, instead of hopping along on her but like she's riding one of those bouncey balls with a handle.