Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Day 61

Mouth still too sore to work on the retrieve. Instead we went back and revisited the place command. Haven't worked on it in a while so it actually was overdue. Little Charlie 3 came in with the owner request that we work on the place command since he wasn't being successful in getting Charlie 3 to go more than about 5 feet. SIGH, how I wish I could just twitch my nose and have owners suddenly able to follow instructions. Ah well, in this case it turn out for the good as far as both Charlie 3 and Sanity were concerned.

Set out a negative space for Sanity and a small step stool for Charlie 3. This made it possible for me to work two dogs at the same time and cover place, come, sit and stay. Not a bad deal. By the end of the session Charlie 3 was going 30 feet to place on his stool and Sanity was doing ever so much better about staying in a sit/stay where she was told. The side benefit just happened to be that Charlie 3 finally decided that he could actually place in the center of a, to him, big negative space and Sanity actually managed to do a place on the top of Charlie 3's little step stool. Somehow I have got to figure out a way to get some pictures of them working. It is too funny to watch Sanity, who is now starting to look like a big dog, working next to a 12 pound, buzz cut Maltese. No matter how tall Charlie 3 sat, nor how much Sanity slumped, she still towers over him.

Other than the time spent on the place command Sanity spent way more time sleeping than she did anything else. Here's hoping that the teething business gives her a break for a few days. I really want to take her out on a field trip and have been holding off until I know she feels better. Her new dog-in-training assistance dog vest arrived yesterday. She really looks so smart wearing it. I will continue to wait to use it for the first time when she has a bit more get up and go.

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