Seeing Eye, Day 7
I slept pretty well through the night, but woke around half past 4.
I'll have to get used to a groaning dog, as Vanya sometimes does this. A friend told me that can happen because they're bored, or just want to say, "Hey, I'm still here."
Last night, a few of us ordered wings from Cluck U. I got middle spicy, 3, but I can definately handle a 4. I'm not going anywhere near 911. For one thing, a waver needs to be signed for this.
Today's wakeup song was Eye of the Tiger. Vanya gave me a present at park, and hopefully she's on a morning 2 schedule. She didn't even complete a circle before I got a 1. She'll be quick.
I fed and pilled her, and she wasn't too happy taking the pills, but I kept it happy and positive for her. Afterword, she did a happy dance, and gave me a kiss. Sorry Riba, I had to steel the happy dance. She was very pleased with herself. One thing she does is immediately start wagging her tail when she sees me in the morning. Her tail wags low, but thumps quite loudly. Whenever we're walking, I feel her tail hit my leg.
She chewed on her bone for a few minutes in her crate, while I got ready for the day. Speaking of chewing, we received our red Kongs Friday night, and she immediately licked it, and wanted it. I'll start playing with her today, and see how she likes the Kong.
I've been playing with the bone with her, and we sit and cuddle and I'm petting her.
I need to figure out how to take a nap with her either on the floor, or in her crate. We don't have the dog towls anymore, so I'll have to think of something.
The floors are hard, and not forgiving.
The crates in the rooms are the Noz2Noz soft sider ones. They're quite nice, and come with a carrying case. I have a soft crate at work, but the bottom is quite bad, so in future, I may purchase one of the Noz2Noz ones. I do like the Mut Mats now, as they're thiaker than my prevous 2.
I friend on FB asked if TSE went back to topical flea/tick meds. They haven't, but for NZ entry, they used a topical. They still use Triheart, for heartworm, and Nextgard, for flea/tick.
On the way out of breakfast, one the cats was in the lobby and Vanya looked at it, received a small correction.
We left at 7:45 for our solos. I did well working with Vationya, but did take a small fall as a crack in the sidewalk came up and caught me. Nothing broken, scratched, or very painful. Vanyayaa was being more causcious after that, but she was still happy, and worked great. There was a little dog trying to get in Vanya's face, and she was like I'm not even going to look at you.
I found 2 classmates on my solo, and we talked to each other about who going first. Vanya blew one down ramp, so I corrected and reworked.
Both Shannon and I were happy with our progress.
I chatted to classmates while the others in my group did their trips.
I chatted to Shannon about Vanya's groaning, as I've not have a dog do this. The last time this happened, Reggie was dying, so this brings bad memories. She said she's perfectly fine, and gave suggestions about what it could mean. E.G. I'm bored, lonely, I'm getting comfortable, etc.
We came back to the Eye, and Vanya and I cuddled for a few minutes, as I felt we needed some down time. We then did obedience, 3 of each exercise, and she did well. From tomorrow, we can practice this, but not drop the leash and have her rest, like I did today. She kept the rest until I called her to me. Good girl pup.
After park, we had the second traffic lecture. This went into more detail about not hurrying the dog in the street, not pushing the harness handle when saying forward, acctuated and volume intersections, and audible signals. With the audibles, we wait 2 seconds before giving the forward command. This way, the dog doesn't go when it hears the signal, but on our command.
For meals, they call various groups of p/dogs. E.G. GSD's, goldens, labs, crosses, yellow dogs, black dogs, a-n and o-z, men, then women, etc.
After lunch, we met as a group, and received our dog shoes. These are slightly neater than the Kerry ones, as the sides and front look like proper sneakers. We put them on, and heeled the dogs down the hall. Of course, Vayna hated them, and gave me a couple shakes of her head, and a sniff to let me know of her disaproval.
We then worked on 2-handed and high collar corrections on stuffed dogs. I learned a slightly new way to do both corrections, as I'd not used either of them with Kerry. Shannon reitterated never to use knees, even to turn, because it looks like your kicking the dog. She also said you can give the corrections, tell them off, in a low voice, but still smile. It's fast, smooth and fluid.
We received our little bells, which we can use when we do "go to your place" on flexileash, and allowing freedom in the rooms. We practiced with the flexi, and I have to remember if I call Vanya twice to come, both times need to be cheerful, like this is something I really want her to do.
Vayna was born late February, 2016, and is about the same height/weight as Kerry. Reggie was my largest dog at 24 inches tall, 67lbs.
We did a clicker exercise, and I got my progress report, which I am happy to have received. I get progress daily, but it's good to get one each week. It's cool to see the dogs working and turning over to us, after only 5 days of having them.
At dinner, I opted for a PBANDJ sandwich, which was nice. I then took about a 2 hour nap, and so did Vanya. I have links for the Going Home, Partners in Travel, and Harnessing Freedom vids that I will watch, and email to people. A couple of them have been updated since my last class.
At final park, Vayna did a 1-2, and we're trying to figure out a schedule for her 2's.
We targeted my chair in the dining room, in which she did very well. As of yesterday at lunch, we moved into the terrace dining room, which is smaller, and means we have to work through the large dining room where the staff eat.
Vayna is a little shark when she takes food, so I make a fist, slowly open it, and say "like a lady". She nuzzles my hand, and takes the food.
I'm off to get my laundry out, so I will write more tomorrow. We start a new rout, also.
Breakfast: Orange juice, cereal, scrambled eggs, bacon, english muffins
Lunch: pineapple juice, BBQ chicken burito with sour cream, chopped salad, turkey salad/sandwich, pecan pie.
Dinner: grape juice, pizza, antipasto salad,
Weather: 30/50f, -1.1/10c, sunny with clouds and a bit of rain.