Over and Over

Okay, so we did have two trainig sessions as promised. First one was a little shaky, because he would sit in heel position when I stoped, but he kept insisting that he face me...in heel position? So when I reached down to move his back end towards me so that he was facing the right direction, he offered the stand because I was touching his back and for the past few days I have been telling him that is what I want. So I had to figure out how to correct the crooked sitting, without asking for a different behavior...that I couldn't correct after he offered that either because he was actually offering...which is what I want. Soo, I ended up just leading him around by his collar back into the correct position, then doing lots and lots of sits and helping him into the sit very very quickly before he had a chance to get crooked again. So we finally got over that, but then that whole confusion maybe made Rugby not feel like standing as much. We worked through it though, as always, and he worked back up to where he was again.

Seems like we are developing a pattern where he starts off good, then has a brain lapse in the middle then ends good too. Not sure what this is all about but I have noticed that the brain lapse is not as intense any more or as long. Soo, hopefully he will just give up on having all these brain lapses and then I will feel safe to introduce the command.

Later that day when I was waiting for the auto people to put a new tire on my car (drove over a nail..humph....it was unfixable), me and Rugby went outside to work. This was a set of distraction that he didn't have to deal with before, the car noises, and cars driving by pretty close, and people walking by (couple of the people stoped and stared and said we were doing a great job and Rugby was really smart ;)...but I already knew that lol). So we just did heeling, sitting standing. This time the brain lapse came quicker than normal, but also left quicker than it has been. And he did better in general here than other place. I was pleased with him especially because he didn't try any of that crooked sitting again. *rolls eyes.*

Oh, one other thing we worked on this morning...coming from a sit-stay 6 ft away. So...he understands that he has to come in my direction, and that he has to sit when he gets there. Problem is....if I am standing up and not kneeling down...he isn't sure how far in my direction to come. So he will stop 2-3 ft away and sit down and stare at me (incredible cute...but not what I want). So for now I am just backing up a couple of steps, giving the command again, and reeling him in where I want him. When he is sitting there in the right place I have then been giving the heel comand, taking a 1/2 step backwards, so the leash sort of pulls him in that direction and then taking 2 steps forward so he can find heel position again. He is doing really well, except that he stops a little behind me. I think he just needs some practice, but there might be a trick to it that I am unaware of.

He also got a bath this morning, and I just bought some ear cleaner stuff the other day and we used that for the first time this morning. He didn't really enjoy it but it wasn't too bad for him :p. Then he got his nails done, and brushed out and blow dried. And now he is a pretty boy again after the all sorts of filthy that he got yesterday playing with everyone. :) What he really needs is a haircut but I just cannot motivate myself to do it right now, so it will wait. HA!