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Jilly and I went for a mile walk/run today (she got to dictate the pace). Once we got home we played fetch hard for 10 minutes and then she passed out next to me. I also ellipticalled for 20 minutes.
Jilly has been doing great. I'm teaching her to jump on a box, turn around once, and then get off the box. We've also been working on ringing the bells to go potty, sitting, laying down, and heeling, in addition to some on leash recall.
Potty training is going *really* well still. She very consistently goes to the door or whines to let us know she needs to go out. Today she even went to the door, came over to the couch, stood for a second looking at me, and then went back to the door. It was soooo cute.
(Pssst! Scroll down to see the pictures from Puppy Class!)
What a whirlwind day yesterday was! It seems like it was three days with everything that happened. Of course, it was Puppy Class day. Oooooooooh, right? I was nervous, I don't think Craig was nervous, and I don't think Jilly was nervous. But I was, oh wait, I said that. Jilly had a busy day, she went to the vet for her rabies shot (we thought she needed it for class, but she didn't, oops. She was getting it Saturday anyway). Then we went to PetSmart to look for a treat pouch, which we found a really nice on in purple. After that we went home.
On a whim, we stopped by the neighbor's house, so that she could meet Mitch, a Pug/Chihuahua mix. He's 3 and a little heavy, but they played great together. Mitch isn't a barker, so Jilly hardly barked at all while playing. They mainly chased each other around the neighbor's house. Man, Jilly is fast! And wiley. She was out manuevering Mitch and after just 15 minutes Mitch was tuckered out. Jilly was still trying to get him to play, but he was done. Craig took her out before I left and that got Mitch's attention. He wanted her to come back when she left, but we still had to eat and give her a bath.
She was very good for her bath and was beautiful and fluffy by the time we left for the obedience club. We got to the club and she peed outside, then we went in and registered. All of the other puppies looked a lot older than Jilly, but they were bigger breeds as well, though the Cavalier Spaniels (there were two) were about her size. She met a few of the other puppies and then we spent the beginning 40 minutes or so of class sitting in folding chairs along the wall while the instructor went over the rules and guidelines and equipment that we'd need.
One of the first guidelines was to not let your dog greet other dogs without permissioni. There was a lady that definitely didn't follow that rule. Her dog came from four chairs over to see Jilly before things got underway and at one point Jilly was in the corner looking uncomfortable. The lady also let her puppy do it during the actual class, a few times, I told her to watch her puppy finally. I'm not comfortable correcting people with their dogs since this is our first dog and I don't know what is "normal" dog owner behavior, but it was really annoying me that her dog was actually sniffing Jilly while I was asking Jilly to do stuff.
While we were sitting and listening I put Jilly on my lap, and she was so tired she actually stayed there, and then she layed down. Then she rested her head on my arms. Then she closed her eyes. And she was out. I was soooo surprised because there was a Beginner's Obedience Class going on right next to our ring, but she zonked out for most of the intro stuff. I was a little worried that she was too tired for class, but she seemed to do fine.
Our instructor is a positive training advocate, which is good with us, and the only thing we covered in the first class was sitting. Jilly did very good for being in a new environment, and I've been practicing having her sit in every room of the house while walking on her leash to get her better at it. She's alredy improved a *lot* at staying to my left side at all times and sitting while straight ahead. We've also been working at laying down while at my side. She doesn't like to lay down on the kitchen, entryway, or bathroom floors, I'm hoping because they are slippery, not because they are hard, since the training area at class is a hard rubber mat.
After class ended we practiced walking laps around the training ring while Craig gave the instructors our information so that they could email in case of closure due to weather. We took Jilly's crate with us and put it in her when we got back in the car and she passed out right away. Flat on her side, she was exhausted from her super busy day. Fortunately Craig and I read Jilly's signals that she needed to go out the two times she had to pee while in the class, so Craig took her out while I continued to listen. So we made it through our whole first puppy class without an accident!
Tuesday Jilly discovered she could jump the barrier keeping her out of the kitchen/entryway. Sigh. Fortunately she doesn't do it much when she's on her own, since she's still not trustworthy to be in the whole house by herself. Tuesday we got a wreath holder for the two bells and Craig rigged it up so that the bells are hanging off it by a string. So Wednesday afternoon we worked on touching the bells. The first time she touched the bells hanging straight up, but then didn't want to again, so I tipped it over so the bells were on the floor and had her touch them repeatedly (treat each time) and slowly tilted the stand up further and further until it was upright. Later that night she actually touched the bells once when going to the door (Craig and I kick the bells lightly with a foot before opening the door to take her out) at the end of the night, so Craig took her out and she peed! Yay! Craig said that she must be the smartest dog in the world because of that. She's already touched them once tonight and went potty when taken outside. We can't tell if she's just playing or wanting a treat, since it doesn't seem possible that she's hitting the bells to go outside already. Though two other times we've had her touch them before going outside instead of us doing it.
Today we went for a walk in the morning before school, it was only about 10 minutes, but she seemed to enjoy it (for the most part, she was a little scared of a car backing out of the drive when we were alongside it's lawn) and she definitely knows where home is! She wasn't nearly as hyper when we got home either, Craig tried to take her for a walk, but he needed a refresher on her walk cues so I went out with him and Jilly to help. She also got played with and then Mitch came for a visit!
Mitch scared the living daylights out of the cats but Jilly had fun. Though, Mitch was more interested in sniffing all of our stuff rather than playing with Jilly, much to her disappointment. One of the reasons we wanted a female dog was so that we didn't have to deal with marking and leg lifting, and today that point was emphasized, right now we follow Jilly around new houses to make sure she doesn't have an accident, but at least we don't have to worry about her doing it to mark her territory!
She wasn't crazy hyper once we got home today, but she didn't sleep until around 10 pm, now she's passed out flat on her side, sleeping away. I don't know if the meeting new dogs is helping or the extra training practice is helping, but she's a lot less vocal about the cats, and less likely to run after them. We're concentraing on not doing tricks on the living room floor (at least sit and down because she already knows them) but I added a new thing today, where she's loose and I run to one side of the room, she follows, I tell her to sit or down and give her a treat, then I run off, and we repeat. She loves it. We also worked a little on trotting forward on the lead and then I suddenly start backing up and calling her, she's great at turning around and running after me before hitting the end of the leash. Hopefully that turns into her coming period, lol.
This is the bad dog that kept coming into our space.
She tends to keep her paw up when I ask her to sit, I'm going to work on that once she's 100% on keeping her sit when I go to give her her treat.
Example of her not keeping the sit at all while receiving her treat. She's a lot better now, after we got more consistent with making her keep the sit before getting a treat instead of giving it to her just for her butt hitting the ground like normal.
Down Jilly!
Ah ah! Sit, then you get your treat. Stay sitting!
She wasn't used to sitting next to me, so we compromised in class with this position. We've been working on sitting next to me today though, so that she'll stay next to me for our next class.
Good girl, keeping her puppy butt on the ground for the treat.
But she still "helps" me find her mouth with a little guiding paw.
She *loves* training, even though she just gets pieces of dog food as her reward, she watches me like this and seems soooo excited.
Jilly survived her first day of Craig and I being back to school. We were gone for 9 hours and she was crazy once we got back. It took three hours of hard playing and one intense training session and she is now passed out on the couch. Poor girl. We start puppy classes tomorrow, I hope it goes well, I'm nervous. It was freezing rain all day today, tomorrow it's supposed to snow, but we *will* go on a walk no matter what. At least half a mile, lol. I need her to be a little tired for puppy class, or at least not crazy hyper!
Our training session went well tonight. I worked on having her sit and down just off of words while I was standing, which caught her off guard in the beginning but she adapted quickly. I also worked on teaching her to sit until she actually got her piece of food reward. Unfortunately I was so anxious just to see that sit that I would give her the treat after she sat and she started jumping up on her hind feet to meet me half way. So now she always gets up on just her hind feet. I'm fixing it by saying "ah ah ah" and standing all the way up again and then bending down to give her a treat once she's sitting fully. In the beginning of working on it she would take three tries before she got the treat, then she was quickly down to just two tries before she stayed sitting, and by the end she was pretty good at just sitting. Once she's consistent with keeping her sit I'll start waiting for her to keep her right paw on the ground the whole time. Right now she keeps it held up, almost as if in anticipation for her next command. We also worked on a lot of touch with different items.
I'm holding off on working on any other tricks until she is 100% with sit and down and after getting further guidance from the puppy class instructor.
So, tomorrow's plan:
Potty time as normal
Some playing
Trip to PetSmart to look for a treat pouch
At least half mile walk
Bath
And of course I need to shower, elliptical, household chores, and do some homework/thesis stuff in there as well. Puppy class isn't until 7, so hopefully I get everything done.
Wow, a lot has happened in the last three days. Saturday the animals went to the vet for their shots, and Kitty got to have her anal glands expressed, boy, that was fun. She *really* enjoyed that. Jilly weighs 4 pounds now.
We've been working on sit, down, and stand more. We spent a whole training session on Saturday working on doing it off of just hand signals and just voice. Jilly is excellent at doing them based on hand signals but not so good at doing it based on voice. We also worked a bit on crawling. Sunday we worked more on the regular stuff, and added rolling over into the mix. It is *really* hard to get her to roll over! I watched a video on youtube showing how to do it, but she doesn't want to follow it over with her nose like the video, so far I've gotten her to roll over a few times, both yesterday and today. Then we work on sit and down a lot because getting her to down without a treat confuses her a lot. I can't give her a treat after down because then she sits after she gets the treat, so I just have to get her to down again anyway.
But, no more working on rolling over for a while, because we're going to Puppy Class!!!! Starting Wednesday, I'm soooo nervous, what if we do badly? What if we're behind with Jilly? What if she goes insane and won't focus? She needs her harness and leash and treats and toys. Apparently the puppies get to play during class. We'll see how Jilly is sharing her toys. She never growls anymore when we take one from her, and she doesn't bark like she used to whenever the cats played with them, but she'd never had to share a toy with another dog.
And final good Jilly news, she has taken to standing by the door when she needs to go out. It's only if she's been playing on the floor, sometimes she'll go to the door and we take her straight out, but she potties every time. We also still take her out as soon as she begins to leave the couch and if she doesn't potty she goes in her crate and is taken out every 30 minutes until she does go. It seems to be working. And she's loving her free time in the back yard whenever she does go potty.
And the last of the preChristmas pictures, or at least the December 22nd and earlier pictures.
These next two are Elphie and Kitty watching Jilly play with the spinny thing.
I've been having some really unsettling dreams the last couple of nights. And with each night of bad dreams my days get lower and lower. I'm not sure why, I'm hoping it's just hormones. I was on the verge of tears for the entire day today, unlike the regular mood with the random crying jag I've had until now.
But, on a good note, there was more Jilly progress today. I started teaching her to shake, in addition to working on sit, down, stand, and touch. We also decided it would be good for Craig to try asking her to do things, and she responded very well to his commands to sit, stand, down, and touch. I was very impressed with her responses, because I really thought that he would have to do *some* retraining, even if it was a quick refresher, but as soon as he had the hand signals right she was trucking right along for him. It was awesome.
Kitty also chased Jilly a couple of times today. Jilly wasn't quite sure what to think of it, but Kitty was getting into it. It all started when Kitty was sitting on the floor, amongst the things that Jilly was learning to touch, during our training session. She was *very* interested in what Jilly and I were doing, trying to figure out exactly why Jilly was doing all of those silly things for me I think. Once I picked everything up and put it back on the coffee table Kitty started eyeing Jilly with that "let's play" look, and she chased her a bit.
I thought it was great progress. Jilly also figured out that she could jump one of her living room barier and gain access to the dining room. That was great fun. Craig piled some towels on the ammo can that is her barrier, and she just climbed right over the towels, even quicker than jumping the barrier by itself. So the ammo can is now on a pile of books, which is successfully thwarting Jilly.
It's still very cold, but Jilly is getting better and better at wearing her little jackets, and I think they help some, when we're outside. We only go out long enough to potty and then she gets her treat and comes straight back in. Right now coming in is as much of a reward as playing in the yard was when it was warmer. Though Jilly did venture out into the yard a bit while it was still sunny outside.
Jilly, sit...
Jilly, lay down...
Jilly, stand...
Jilly, lay down...
Jilly, sit...
Obviously these pictures were not taken during training, they are used here solely for illustrative purposes. We added something new last night, "touch". The previous night we had started on touching an upside down jar candle. Last night, on Craig's suggestion, we worked on it more. With a flashlight, magnet, wallet, closed knife, and burnt out light bulb. It was amazing how quickly she caught on. When I added something new and pointed at it while saying touch she would go through and touch everything we'd been working on, before finally coming back to what I was pointing at. After that, she would have no problems touching it. I think that knowing to "touch" is going to come in handy for teaching her to ring a bell to go outside.
I was using the clicker while teaching her to touch, which I think helped a lot. Toward the end I was even making it harder by simply pointing at what I wanted her to touch and saying touch, instead of tapping it myself. Now we just need to get her some bells!
When Kitty thinks of Jilly you can tell. Because she gets this look on her face...
Jilly is doing soooo well with her training. I wasn't sure how to transition her from following the treats into sitting/standing/downing. So I started focusing more on my hand position, so that she would associated my hand position with what she was supposed to do. I then started to hold my hand further from her when asking her to do something, and she actually did it, right where she was, instead of scooching closer to my hand, where the treat was. At the end of our second training session last night I tried asking her to do everything while I was standing, instead of kneeling in front of her, and she did them! I was surprised, because even though I didn't have my hand right in front of her anymore, I was still having my hand near the ground for down, near her face for sit, and eye level for stand. But when I stood up she would lay down, even though my hand was a couple feet above the ground, just flat though. I'm still clicking whenever she does what I asked too. We also started working on "touch" last night, teaching her to put her paw on an upside down jar candle. She caught on very quickly. I think she definitely knows what the clicker means, since if she's walking away from me and I click it, she stops, turns to me, and sits, waiting for her treat. I only did it twice, just to see how she responded to a click.
She's picked up a new habit though, she goes "fishing" in her water bowl. Sometimes she even *stands* in her water bowl and splashes around. We've replaced the towels lining her pen with a sheet of linoleum. So to make up for not being able to drag her towels into the bowl she put her bird in the bowl. It's *still* soaked. Today she got to run around outside, off leash, which she thought was fun, but she was more than willing to come in, due to the cold and the wind.
I'm a little concerned because she doesn't eat breakfast. Last night she gobbled up dinner for a change, but in the morning she has no interest in food whatsoever. She gets food during training though, and of course, treats when she goes potty outside. I would just feel better if she ate *something* for breakfast!
It is becoming hard to practice "sit" with Jilly. Whenever I am working with her, she sits. All the time. So we've been working on lay down and stand as well. I'm using the clicker, just to click the instant she does what I want, so that if I'm clumsy with giving her the treat, she understands she was good and did what I wanted. She's very good at lay down and sit, when I'm holding a treat. Actually, she sits as soon as I say her name, so I think that right now she thinks "Jilly" means sit. When I ask her to stand and use the treat to lure her into standing, she hops, still in the sitting position forward. She refuses to stand up, just keep sitting but moving toward the treat, it's sooooo cute. She started getting the hang of it though, and right now going from lay down to sit consists of her popping straight up into the air for the treat, then settling into a sit.
I made stairs out of boxes for her, and she didn't use it much, but then we put pillows to make it more into a ramp and she loves it. She's still doing a good job of going potty outside, and Kitty is closer to playing with her. This afternoon Kitty was sleeping on my lap and Jilly was on the cushion, by the end of the nap Jilly's hind feet were touching Kitty and neither were caring, even after they noticed.
