July 19 thru 25
The walking every morning is going great. I discovered a couple of things with Ellie this week that has made training a little easier. First on the walks when she starts to pull I simply stop and do not continue until there is some slack in the lead. Normally she sits when we do this which is not a bad thing and works well when we come to a road where I want her to stop and wait until I tell her it’s ok. It took a good week before this has started to sink in but I think that’s doing real well. She is a quick learner and although frustrating (for both of us) as long as I keep calm and stick with the plan it works.
Another thing I realized was when playing retrieving training she wants to be chased instead of giving the ball back to you. If I turn my back on her she jumps up and wants to give it to you. I need to work on the jumping but she is getting the idea that this is how the game is played. This works well with the come command also. Turn, start to walk away and give the command she’s normally right behind me.
Working on the heel command and she is doing well. It is all treat based reactions but she is getting the movement. I normally line up with the left side away from her and bring a treat around my body to the left side giving the command heel a couple of time. When she sits close to my left she gets the reward.
New teeth are coming in and her bite is getting softer as a Labrador should be. Although she slips and nicks me it’s normally going after something, like a ball and not a deliberate bite.
She keeps on growing and is all legs. She found a partially decomposed squirrel in the bushes and ran around with that in her mouth like it was a toy for a good fifteen minutes on Sunday. I finally got it away from her. Other than the smell it did look like some of the plush toys we have. If it wasn’t so disgusting I’d find humor in it. She was real proud.