Training Notes, 011107

Waldo~65
Waldo’s doing well, and is leaving our program to go back to Princeton for advanced training with Christy next week. Paul will be getting a new puppy as soon as possible.

Star~67
Star has been having issues with crate training since we’ve had her. As a pup with her first raiser she didn’t like to stay in her crate, and with her second raiser she would wake in the middle of the night and cry until let out. Last weekend I got emails from Heather that were concerning~Star refused to go into her crate at all. I took her with me on Saturday to work on it, and by the end of the day had her running from about 30 feet away into her crate, waiting for the release and recalling back to me. I believe that WPR Heather was just worried about initially pushing her into the crate but once she realized that it wasn’t an option she was fine. She is still afraid of certain appliances like the hair dryer and the vacuum, as well as walking on certain surfaces.
I got my first chance to work Star out of the facility this week and found that she was good on a flat collar with minor reminders about forging except around another dog. I put her into the car with Draco who made it very clear that he didn’t want to be jumped on, so she was rather subdued during our ride. She handled the car wash well, initially concerned but then modeled Draco’s behavior of lying down and ignoring it. I allowed them free play time and she was submissive/fearful at first, but as they got more comfortable she got more confident.

Chesty~65
Chesty was at training in Princeton last week and got into two altercations with other dogs. Since Chesty was eval’d at the puppy house it has been noted that he’s rather rough with lower ranking dogs but this week he got into a scuffle with an adolescent male Golden~a dog that would be about his equal. He will be evaluated by Brian on Thursday of next week to determine his status with NEADS. His obedience continues to improve, he knows all of his commands but appears to be going through a fear stage. He was afraid of a new wheelchair that AJ was using last week (but is good with it this week) and is reacting strangely with things that he never noticed/reacted to before.

General~56
Mike tells me that General is having an extremely difficult time getting used to the Gentle Leader on while working. I asked him to send him out on it this weekend~it actually may work to WPR Lisa’s benefit to have him a bit subdued. He is getting the hang of it, and I think he’ll get used to it in time. Currently he’s only wearing it for 1-2 hours a day. I asked Mike to have him wear it for more of the day this week.