This morning it was cold and sunny.
07:30am – Babe was great as he is every morning. Good poops and he helped me get his breakfast ready!
11:00am – Session 1.
So today I took Babe to the park for a hike. I wanted to get acclimated to his crate in the car a bit and also walking on a leash. So off to the park we went. He whined some in the car, in his crate, on the way to the park. It took about 10 minutes to drive there and he whined for about 5. Once we got there I got the leash off him and got him out of the crate and off we went on our hike.
There were a few cyclists who started out ahead of us and he was watching them but did a great job of not pulling on the leash. The hike we were on was a 2.5 mile hike and he did great. For most of the hike he was a bit behind me walking and he only wanted to stop a few times to sniff and explore.
During the hike we came across a couple that was walking as well. He was extremely interested in going over to them so I had to work a bit on getting him to focus on me and our walk. We also met up with a woman who had a dog off leash. Optimally I would have liked for her to continue by but she had stopped and pulled her dog to the side which required me to walk by with Babe. Again he was interested in playing with the dog so this situation took a bit more prompting for him to get by.
As we continued on we came across 3 more groups of cyclists. For this I had him move to the side (as is proper trail etiquette) and had him in a sit and watch as they rode by. The first group he broke out of his sit, however the last 2 times he stayed in his sit and came out of it when I called him to come. This was great progress which is typically for Babe as he learns super quickly. Once back to the car it was back in the crate and a few whines before he was quiet and then got some water before relaxing after his long outing. He is a great boy.
4:00pm – Session 2
Babe was sleeping when I went to get him for his session this afternoon. Still a bit tired from his adventure earlier today.
We worked on a few of his behaviors which he did well with. A bit into the session a man and his wife came over with their dog. He broke from me to look over. This is when you want to make sure you have a leash so that you have control over any situation. After I stopped him he watched for a bit then barked a few times. I called him over and he came right over and I placed him in a down. He was good until the dog started to move then he got up to watch. I called him over again and put him in a down facing me which he stayed in while the dog moved off and away. All of these interactions are great for him to understand and learn that attention should be on us while things will happen around him.
Heading back he was super bitey so I had to work on that for a bit. It’s been sometime since he has done that but sometimes that happens where they regress a bit and that’s why learning is so important. You can always take them back a few steps if needed.
6:00pm – play time and dinner.
8:00pm – play time and walk.
10:00pm – play time and walk.