Friday, December 9, 2011

How to kill a red cabbage

Tomorrow is George's birthday, and I'm cooking him a nice German dinner (sauerbraten, red cabbage, spaetzel, a few other things, and German choc cake).   Made the cabbage ahead today in order that it is properly seasoned for tomorrow.    Fizz seems to have a penchant for rolling on vegetables, we've seen this behavior many times.   Today, I thought to capture it on video.   Puppies are a wonderful source of joy and entertainment!!  :)


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

At the end of a month......

Fizz was 12wks on Sunday, and has been here a month now.   I'm just amazed to see how far she's come.   Its been tiring at times, this new journey we're on.   No verbal or physical corrections.   Logging all of my training, which is typically 6-8 mini sessions per day.   Some days, I go to bed so exhausted I can't even remember what I did (thus a new system of tracking my training has emerged).   I don't ever remember a puppy tiring me so much, but I don't think I ever put this level of detail/effort into a puppy either (meanwhile, keeping up with my 3.5 & 6yr olds!).  :)

I keep a 3-ring binder with all of my training notes.   Each day contains details of each training session, including:  time, location, treats used, games played, and then an assessment of how it went.  At the end of the day, I look to see how much of each thing was accomplished, and based on that, and my weekly plan/goal, decide what to move forward with for the next day.   If I've missed something for a few days, or not gotten enough reps of it in, then it goes on high priority for the upcoming day.

Being a scientist by training, keeping notebooks is not foreign.  However, I was not finding the time to NEATLY enter the level of detail that I wanted.   So....now I have a scribblebook (composition notebook) and my decorated 3 ring binder.   The scribblebook is used through-out the day, to quickly enter notes about what happened when.   Just before bed, I sit down to re-write it, putting into detail what went on.  

At the end of our first month, I have a puppy who is tightly bonded to me, yet confident to go meet any one new who crosses her path, and self-confident enough to hang out with someone if I choose to hand the leash off and walk away.   Today, we walked down the street, around the corner, and met a "tree dude."   Two HUGE diesel trucks were running, one of which was also hauling a monster-sized chipper.   The other 'tree dude' was using the chain saw and cutting the remainder of a fore-shortened tree into manageable sized logs.   None of this bothered her one whit.    She was so excited to meet someone new:  a big thick man, wearing an eye-bleeding yellow jacket (you know, that new safety color that so many have), thick blue rubber gloves, and his bright orange hard hat - hearing protector contraption.    He was QUITE the sight, and certainly not like anyone else we've met.   But he was excited to see her, and she just calmly went right up to him, and nestled in for pets.    The trainer in me was VERY happy with her confidence.   If we ever meet an obed judge in tree gear, at a very loud trial........we're down with that.  :)

Fizz travels beautifully in the car, and has since Day 1.  She just goes to sleep and does not try to crate surf, nor bobble around as I'm driving.   No car sickness, no barking at anything.....just lovely!   In a similar vein, when we're at our competition obedience class, she lies quietly in her crate until it's time to come out and work.   Fizz ADORES other dogs and people, I would rate them as an A++ level distraction at times.   However, when it's our turn to watch, she is wonderfully quiet and sedate.   I sure hope that continues as she matures.

We've established, through games, that treats on the floor are NOT fair game, just for the taking.  Neither are treats in my hand, or on the counter..........and funny enough, neither are toys.   She will hold a sit while I drop a favorite tug to the floor within a foot of her.  I can take that same tug and snake it around, and even whack the ground with it.   She just looks like "what, you think I'm gonna fall for that?!"   She explodes into it on release, and we have wonderful games of tug and puppy bounce. :)    Her ability to maintain a down is similar, even though we've not worked on it much at all (maybe twice in the past month?).    She's generalizing the "Its Yer Choice" (Susan Garrett) game very nicely.  

Retrieve work is started.  She races out to whatever I throw out, quickly picks it up, turns, and comes straight back to me.   Currently, I kneel on the floor when we play this game, and her default behavior is to dive between my legs.   No growling when I pet her, and if I put out a hand as she comes in, she'll bring it to my hand.   I have not worked that behavior yet, and its on our list to solidify over the next month.   When I was visiting the litter, Fizz brought a few toys near me, but often seemed to want to get off away from her littermates and enjoy whatever prize she'd shopped.   I don't care about puppy tests, PAT, or otherwise.   I didn't need to see what she'd do with a crinkled paper ball, or if she'd bring it back.   I wanted to see her natural carrying behavior (calm, not mouthy), and her natural interest level in people in general throughout the day (high).   I knew that with solid calm carrying and an interest in people, simply building a strong, positive relationship would generate a good retrieve in the early stages........and that is playing out!   I have never done a forced retrieve of any kind on any dog, and I don't plan to ever change that.   In 5 trials, Froli never lost points on her retrieves (3x SchH1, 2x ScHH2).  

Needless to say, I absolutely adore this puppy and am having a blast training with her.   :)