Day 60 of Dog - zippy-de-do-dah

She actually sat, on her own, on the front porch. Unfortunately I didn't notice it when it happened so the reward wasn't on time, so it was mostly a wasted session.
Last night, after getting home at eight I had to hurry supper. I put them outside from 9:00 to 10:30 and when I brought her in, I tried the experiment of leaving the cage door open overnight.

Wrong. Not only were there two doos and a dee in the entry but also--

I stepped in it.

Day 59 of Dog

The usual training today. I made her jog down the driveway. She lagged a good bit but kept up, so that was progress.

Absolutely no progress on Come or Sit and especially no progress on the automatic sit when on a leash. I really ought to check the training guide.

Day 58 of Dog

A normal day at home for her. For me, it was an especially long training session including sit. She's not getting it yet but I'll keep at it. It takes about five minutes of standing for her to get bored enough to sit down on her own. When that happens--reward!

A couple of times I got bored and forced her to sit. But I don't think it helped one whit. Being forced to have your legs bent and your behind forced down is not the same as doing it on your own accord.

Day 57 of Dog

This is the second landmark occasion of our dog-owner association. When I went to pick her up, when she saw me, and smelled me--

Tail wag.

The first time I've ever seen her tail wag. And it was for me.

Day 57 of Dog

No dogs.

Day 54 of Dog

Wish the kennel had a web cam.

Day 53 of Dog

Who knows? She's in doggie boarding school!
I miss her.

Day 52 of Dog

Going to doggie boarding school. We'll see

Day 51 of Dog

She did pretty good at the vet's office. I'm not saying she walked the whole way on her own steam, but she walked a good bit. In the sixty minutes of our wait, we walked up and down the waiting room three or four times.

Day 50 of Dog

No vet trip, of course, but she did get a pretty good walk. Just the usual--up and down the driveway. She pooped on the kitchen floor last night but that was because I was out at Guitar Center until all hours and then I forgot to close the cage door.

Day 48 of Dog

No walk today--rain. Better luck tomorrow.

I really think she likes me now. She perks up at the sound of my voice; she tolerates the pill and the ear medicine pretty well. The only thing lacking is the come.

Day 47 of Dog

Nice walk today. She still strongly resists walking into the house, even a house that IS completely quiet. I don't know why. Once back outside, I tried to get her to jog a little but it wasn't super successful.

Day 46 of Dog

On our walk today, the neighbor dog came up and wanted to sniff. It's a really mild-mannered dog but NoName wanted no part of it. She tried to run; tried to get out of her harness; and didn't settle down for five minutes after we walked away.

She tends to lag a little behind when we're walking--I need to work on that.

Needless to say with the schedule being so weird, she's worn out and sleeping now and I don't think she's going to want any supper. I may let her skip it. She can have extra in the morning.

Day 45 of Dog

What the hell! Poop on the floor--outside the cage--this morning. Poop in the dining room this afternoon. How long was she inside???? It was a beautiful sunny day all day and....

Oh. I can guess. When I left this morning, I left her cage open and asked Hew to put her outside when she'd finished eating. He probably sat outside smoking and playing games until noon--she probably did her poop in the morning and it's been sitting here in the dining room ever since.

Day 44 of Dog

On account of all that monkeying around with the schedule yesterday, she pooped on the floor today. Not a lot, but enough so that both my brother and I stepped in it. He--at least--had shoes on.

She pooped outside of her cage, in the pantry and you know? I think that's a good thing. Maybe she really, really doesn't like poop in the cage. But that gives me a dilemma for tonight--close the door or leave it open? I'd rather clean up poop inside the cage than out, but I don't want to encourage the habit of pooping inside the cage.

I guess...leave it open. It rained again today and so she didn't get to stay out very long so I'm really asking for trouble.....

So be it.

By the way, I just love it how she doesn't cower in her little niche anymore. Except when people address her--she still cowers then--but right now she's sleeping and she's right out in the front of the cage where I can practically touch her.
Not that I would--this is progress and I don't want to cause regress.

Day 43 of Dog

She finally ate breakfast sometime this afternoon. Now the thunderstorm (alleged thunderstorm) is making me move her suppertime back a bit. I want her to have a good two hours outdoors after she eats.

So where's the stupid thunderstorm?

Day 42 of Dog

No breakfast for my poor angel! And a murder of a trip to the vet--she got in the car by herself and traveled very well. But the vet's office was full of cats and people and small dogs and ugh! She didn't freak but I had to carry her practically everywhere.

Day 41 of Dog

Since I got home early, all three of them got a nice long walk. A few hitches when the little dog kept ignoring my commands, but progressive.

Tomorrow will the dreaded Day--back to the vet for you-know-what. Poor baby!

Day 39 of Dog

She kissed me today!

Day 38 of Dog

Izzy did so well walking on the leash today that I decided to double it up. I walked her a second time, taking the big dog on the right hand and letting the little dog run loose. We made the driveway trip in double time.

She does tend to lag a bit--when I get time to research I'll see what I'm supposed to do to correct that.

Day 37 of Dog

I emailed three pet boarding kennels today and got answers from two of them. One was a "no", one was a "no answer", but the other was a "yes; call me." So I did--twice. And I left a message and I sent a follow-up email. And I've heard nothing.

She probably goofed when she said yes and is now embarrassed to call me back.
My little NoName 'heeled' (sort-of) all the way to the end of the driveway, a little up the street, back and into the house and up to the front door. Either she's exceptionally smart or else she learned a little of this leash-walking thing sometime before.

....
Found a boarding kennel!

Day 36 of Dog

No more issues yesterday. Today I put her little harness on her and 'heeled' her all the way up the driveway and back. It took a while--she kept stopping to look around--but we made it! All the way--okay, we're talking 100 yards or so--but, all the way!

We'll go farther tomorrow...I think. I think...I just volunteered to listen to Cranky's band concert from seven until whenever. Do I really want to come home, walk the dog, then get back in the car to go listen to a band concert?

Damn!

Day 35 of Dog

OMG. I took her to the vet this morning to get her shots. Then she had to spend more than half of the afternoon inside on account of the cold, and when I arrived home from work--

Sick dog. Two pools of diarrhea and a swamp of sick.

I'm almost scared to feed her supper.

Day 34 of Dog

When I put her out this morning it was about 36 degrees. As long as she stays active the temperature is bearable. Tomorrow it'll be colder but, at least, there won't be rain. Hew was supposed to bring her in at about 10 a.m. and I hope he did. Even if it means poop in the morning--better warm poop than frozen dog.

Day 33 of Dog

Rain. Cold. This is going to be the hardest month of having this dog. She doesn't seem to understand going into the doghouse to get out of the rain, which is not surprising seeing as how the cage she spent most of her life in didn't have a doghouse. Nor did it have rain.

It was forty degrees outside this morning when I got up the second time, so I let her in. (The first time was at seven, as my habit: I feed them and then put them out.) I'm going to do the dreaded vet visit on Tuesday and then move my schedule back a half-hour. That should allow me to have her outside a shorter time before breakfast, the coldest time of the day.

It was so cold for our lesson today I took her around inside the house and then went out on the front porch. I couldn't get her off the porch, but at least we have a new place under our belt.

Day 32 of Dog

Turned out bad--we missed our afternoon lesson. Now it's raining and I don't want to train her in the rain. The kids are watching TV in the living room, so if I tried to train her inside it would annoy the heck out of them and probably not teach her anything useful.

I'll try to think of something else to do that will advance her training--like maybe feed her and sit close by while she eats.
\

Day 31 of Dog

Just did our lesson of heeling to the front door and back. We made it this time, although not without a little pickup at the start. (Me picking her up) A couple more rep's with no one in the house should get it.

I was feeling really discouraged until I realized that 31 days ago she wouldn't even eat from my hand!

Day 30 of Dog

I tried to heel to the front door today. People were all over the place--just Egar and Hew--but still it was so incredibly distracting I gave up. We worked the exercise of going down the back steps again and it wasn't all that easy. We got through it.
I don't know what I'm going to do during holiday.