Doggy Chronicles: She’s Fetching

Our dog is on a roll. She’s making progress so fast right now and we’re so proud of her. It’s like she can tell that we are head over heels in love with her and she’s milking us for attention and snacks.

I’ve started letting her off the leash a little, just in places I know she’ll be good in. Now, every morning when we are going to doggy daycare, I have been letting her take herself from the door to the car. I just can’t believe how good she is. She just runs to the car and waits there until I open the door for her. Just weeks ago it seemed whenever we’d leave the house, she’s yank and pull, trying to get me to take her on a walk instead of daycare. Yesterday we got back to the house from our dog walking class with Tessa Thomas of Dog Rules Charm School. Once we got to our driveway I dropped her leash. She stayed right with us, even went up to the front door by herself and waited to be let in. This is so totally amazing. Just 7 months and she’s well on her way to more independence. I was very tempted to let her off the leash last week in Forest Park but was afraid of bikes. I think if we do find a nice hiking place that is bike free, if we get far enough out where I don’t have to worry about her jumping on some poor unsuspecting hiker, we should try it. She’s very good at checking in with us at the dog parks and is getting a little better at not straying off too far on her own. We may be ready for some non-fenced dog parks. The idea of it makes me nervous and excited. We could actually finally go to Sellwood park just down the street instead of having to drive miles away. This means potentially more doggy park time for her since it’ll be easier and quicker to get there.

Today Tom reported Mississippi was an absolute angel on her walk. She stayed right by his side the whole time and if she started to get a little ahead, he’d just stop and remind her and she’s come right back to his side. This is more amazing than amazing. I never thought she’d ever be able to get to the point of giving us priority over all those wonderful smells out there waiting for her. We had a great class yesterday, I saw that Mississippi really can pass by squirrels and cats and dogs as long as I give her enough reason to pay attention to me, right now that pretty much means luring her with bacon on her nose, but I’ll take it. I think I give up to easily with her on walks sometimes. She goes bananas and instead of being persistent, I just give up and pull her along until she calms down.

Maybe the most amazing news I have is that Mississippi played fetch with us. We threw the ball, she ran after it, picked it up, brought it back and dropped it at our feet. It was like a light went off in her head. “Oh!!!! they want me to bring it back!” This is so amazing. It means we are on our way to having a structured game and that means we are closer to off leash time in non-fenced in parks. If we can get her to focus on fetching, we won’t have to worry so much about her wandering off if we try to take her to a park. It’s been something we’ve been frustrated over. If she could just learn to fetch, she could get more much needed running time, dog park time could be more of a family affair instead of us just following her around. It also means we can teach her to retrieve all sorts of things. I see more tricks in her future.

Speaking of tricks, we’ve taught her “bear dance” which involves her walking on her hind legs. She’s getting quite good at it and she’s so adorable when she does it. Next we’re going to try and train her to raise her right paw. Right now, she will only lift the left one. If we can just get that other paw up, we can do all sorts of other fun tricks.

bear walk

She really loves to learn, I loved seeing the look in her eyes yesterday as she was trying to figure out what our trainer was asking of her. She’s a smarty. I think all this progress she’s made lately has a lot to do with her wanting to show off how smart she is. She also just seems so much more comfortable with us now. We shower her with love. She’s such an amazing dog. I feel like we really lucked out with her. We worked hard too, but we have on our hands a dog who wants very badly to do good. She loves the love. I think she’s a genius.

We’ve loved our dog walking class with Tessa Thomas in Portland and if you want her info, just email me. Her training is fun- and rewards- based and she’s got some solid techniques that are going to help us for years to come. She was a great coach for us, she watches you and your dog and can read the dog’s behavior so well, she’s great at nipping any distractions in the bud but refocusing attention as soon as she recognizes your dog is getting distracted. I realized how easy it is to tell when Mississippi is about to go bonkers and now I can steer her away before she gets to that point. Mississippi loves being good on walks now. She understands what we want a little better now. I think that’s been so key with her, getting her to understand what we like and what we don’t like. It’s harder than it sounds with dogs.

the bow


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