Day 243

Somehow Tuesday seems to have become the day of the small dog. It's as if the place is swarming with little munchkins. There was a total three ring circus at the office door at 6 a.m. Out go three munchkins(Tyler, Tiny Charlie and Caesar), in come two munchkins(Brisbane and Buster). No wait, the incoming were Tyler and Brisbane, no, no, its Caesar and Buster, no that's not right it must be Tyler and Buster. Are there two in and two out? Nope, there are now three in and one out, but wait, did you see that white flash?

Its Tiny Charlie, quick shoo him out. Grab. Nope, missed him. Finally, everyone is out, but wait, what is that under the desk grinning at me? Its Tyler! Out! Out! Out that door right this minute, Shadow? Don't tell me you actually want to get involved in this nonsense? And then after about 10 minutes all are outside and peace reigns in the office for a short time.

If that had been a pack of "real" dogs I could/would have simply told everyone to go outside and they would had all complied. So how come these little swarms of munchkins don't work the same way? I'm telling you they never act like a pack of dogs. I don't care what anyone tells you, believe me when I say they are more like a swarm of bees. Try as you might there are always some buzzing off in the wrong direction. And to think I once actually thought that working with and training the short guys would be easier. HA!

Tyler is having a blast. He is putting all his newly learned Doberman skills into play and manages to come out on top, the winner, the leader, and an almost world class trouble maker. His recall is chugging right along. I must put in more time on his sit. My fault, not his. He managed to spend most of his afternoon nap time playing sort of quiet mouth wrestling games with Sanity. And a good gauge of his growth is that he can no longer fit his entire head in Sanity's mouth.

Sanity got up this morning with still way too much belly from yesterday's pigout. So she will continue on short rations for all of today. Man-o-man, does she think she is being abused. I just tell her she is lucky to have me to help her watch her waistline. I need someone to do the same for me.

Working articles today, it was interesting to see the change in how she is now approaching the three article pile. She is starting to show a little bit more thought and a little less randomness in her behavior. Seeing the change I have started using the ecollar for corrections. Having it set at what she views as her "learning" level, I can back further out of the picture and allow her more room to make decisions. It certainly makes a difference in how she works.

I used the same set-up as yesterday the first time and she had two mistakes with the first send and then no mistakes with the second send. It was the second training session of the day when I added the ecollar and sort of removed myself from the picture. She made one mistake when I first sent her for the article in the 9 o'clock position and then no more mistakes. Her working the 11 o'clock position was a pleasure to watch. She was a little slow and tentative on her return, but she is showing far more confidence in her decisions.

In reviewing her progress, I just realized that she is actually only days away from my starting to introduce leather articles. Things are moving right along.

Help-wise, she is doing much better at fetching the metal food bowls, but she still insists on trying to pick them up on the near side which causes the bowl to stick straight out in front of her. I know this is making the task very difficult for her and so I continue to encourage her to pick them up from the far side. This causes the bowl to hang down under her chin and is a much easier and more efficient way of doing the job. Shoes, articles of clothing, some paper items are all coming back to me in a more reasonable fashion and to tell the truth, I'm not really sure just when the change started. I just know it has definitely started, in spite of the fact that she is still trying to play games with me on the stand. All in all, she is pretty darn good for being still just a pup.