inordinately pleased

To say that I’m pleased with the big red whirling dervish would be an understatement. You could say that I’m inordinately pleased. Today we had an opportunity to practice outside the house: first in a parking lot, and second at a somewhat busy PetSmart.

In the parking lot we were able to practice some loose-leash walking in an unfamiliar, but not overly distracting location. There were cars moving about and the occasional person. She got to do some polite greetings and also met a kind lady in a wheelchair. The leash wasn’t always loose, but overall she did really well.

We went inside the PetSmart right away as there was a lot of salt on the walkway. Inside the door is a fairly open area which is great for getting our bearings. Moving down the aisles was challenging at first - lots of sniffing and she wasn’t responsive to ‘leave it’ or ‘on by’ - there was just way too much stimulation. But in less than 5 minutes things had improved greatly. We were starting to get some really great loose leash times and were able to pass some dog interesting areas - pee on the floor was the hardest to get by!

Her automatic sits were almost there, especially as time went by. We got downs, stays, and even a recall past food bags. With some help (and lots of reinforcement), she did a sit/stay in the toy aisle while we picked out a new toy for her. It was doubly hard as there were some tasty Kong treats right beside her.

Adia met a few people and some dogs. I have to think what I want the people greetings to be like. I was having her sit, and rewarding the sit, but in the end she was more interested in the food than in saying hello. With Spike I had a release command - ‘do you want to say hello’ was his cue to greet someone. I think Adia is getting good enough at the sitting part for me to add the release. I think we need practice where sometimes she gets to greet and other times not, with a clear cue as to the difference. 

It is so nice to see the progress we’ve made over the last few weeks. There is still a long way to go before she is anywhere near as good as Spike was, but I can see that she has it in her to be that good :-) 

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”

~Winston S. Churchill