10.18.09

Training Emmy 10/18/09

No Pictures today, Blogger doesn't seem to want to upload them. What do you expect for free?

Believe it or not the Emmy training continues – the amount of time and attention it takes from our already busy lives explains why I haven’t updated this blog in so long.

We’ve now completed two of the five, hour long training courses offered by the Humane Society. Its actually a six week program, but we missed the first one.

I’ve found them very helpful, as much because they offer me some positive reinforcement as for what Emmy has learned.

One big thing I’ve learned is to use more treats more often in training. I’ve always avoided treats, because I felt like I would end up with an overweight dog that won’t stop begging. That doesn’t seem to be the case though, and during yesterday’s class Emmy was doing an excellent job of walking on a loose leash (walking by my side without pulling on the leash) not a true “heel” but a comfortable way to walk.

Each day after work I take her to a large field nearby and throw the ball for her. She’s already very good at bringing it back to me and its great exercise for her.

I’ve noticed however that after four or five fetches the excitement of the field overwhelms her and she stops coming back. Luckily she’s still young enough to be afraid of being alone, so when that happens I just say “OK, I’m leaving you now” and I turn my back and start walking or running in the other direction. Within a couple of seconds I hear her running to catch up. At that point I take out a treat, say “Emmy, come” and then reward her for doing it. Hopefully in this way she’ll think it was her idea.

Potty training is also going well – she is now sleeping from 9:45 until 4:15, and I think I’ll increase it to 4:30 tonight. Within a couple weeks she’ll be sleeping until 5:00, which will make my life easier.

On the downside, she’s still a puppy. For most of the day she’s great to be around, but for some reason the hours of 2:00pm until 5:00pm are “crazy time”. It seems like no amount of walks, ball chasing or attention is enough – these hours are filled with barking, nipping, jumping---basically all the things that puppies do that we wish they wouldn’t.

So that’s about it for today. Training continues, not as fast as we would like but faster than we had any right to expect.