Public socialisation, hubby off to England and a lack of posts!

Well, I know I haven't been posting much at the moment. I usually work on my posts in the evening just before sleeping and the last week or two I've just been so tired I start falling asleep as I do it! My body has had a hard time getting over the virus I had, although the autoimmune rash I had is more or less gone - for now. We've also been a bit busy with house maintenance and my husband is about to leave for a 3.5 week trip to England, where he comes from and where we got married last year. So things have just been a bit tiring.

A week ago or so the hubby and I took Knightley on a trip to the inner city of Canberra for the first time. It was raining pretty heavily, but we tried to stay undercover when possible. We did end up getting pretty wet eventually though! Not good considering I was feeling pretty 'ordinary' as we Aussies like to say. (Ordinary = not great at all, with connotations of rough swearing Aussie blokes eg...' that's pretty bloody ordinary!' .... and just so you know, bloody doesn't count as swearing here. Right, that's your lesson in Aussie slang for today.....) Anyway, I had him in his vest which tells people not to touch him, as I want him to get used to not approaching people when in public, which he is getting quite good at. We wanted to go to a specific clothes store but it meant crossing a pretty major road that bisects the centre of Canberra's inner city - by far the most cars Knightley had seen together. He did absolutely fantastically though. I'd taken a big fat treat pouch so as he sat by my side waiting for the opportunity to cross I stuffed him with treats as cars wizzed by in front of him, splashing puddles of water around as they went. The idea of feeding when cars are going past, or for instance if we were in a quiet part of the city but stumbled upon a huge noisy truck, is to associate these things with good feelings, so when he seems them again he will feel good and certainly not scared. Fear is the number one reason assistance and guide dogs don't all make the grade. This method of association is called classical conditioning.


So we crossed the street and continued towards the store. When we got there we were all three of us a bit bedraggled at this stage, so the hubby asked if Knightley and I could come in, instead of waiting outside. He explained that Knightley was being socialised, and they were absolutely fine with it. It was great to get out of the bad weather, and Knightley was very well behaved. It was Knightley's first time in a clothes store - in fact it was only his second store ever after a book store at our local fresh food markets - so I took the opportunity to familiarise Knightley to it. We wove in and out of the racks of clothes, although  I often had to ask for him to wait, then I would go ahead, then release him to follow me, as the passages between some of the racks were pretty small. It was good practice. I wonder if I could get that automatic, or get it on just one cue. It's interesting how doing just a little tiny bit of public access experience gives you so much to think about.

After that we walked back to cross the busy road, and it was still pouring. The cars zoomed past in front of Knightley's face, spraying water everywhere, and I really - like his amazing performance at the Sideshow Alley - couldn't believe he could be so sanguine in the face of such a new and rather intimidating experience. I have been careful to slowly ramp up the intensity of his experiences with cars, but still, I was impressed and so proud.

Knightley under the table at the fast food place. We need
to work on getting him to curl more tightly so that if he has
only a very small area under a table he will still fit. The most
common technique is to use a hula hoop and then smaller
hoops until the dog is used to curling up tightly.

We decided we needed to eat after that, so asked if we could bring him into a fast food restaurant and get out of the rain. I trained him to do an 'under' command when he was pretty young, where he gets under any object its possible to get under on cue - a seat, table, chair, bench etc. We need to work on getting him to curl up some more, at the moment he is just doing it in a relaxed down on his side.

Nevertheless, he stayed in a down the whole time, and just shifted around once. So I was very happy with him, and we were able to eat our meal and pretty much forget that he was there. After finishing eating we walked around the busy shopping area, getting him exposure to the crowds  that had come to get away from the rain and do some shopping. I noticed a small change in the way he was walking and guessed he needed to have a pee stop, and as soon as I found a place and gave him the command he went immediately. I *LOVE* having cues to empty him out, I think they are the most useful of everything I have taught him.

Knightley on a good relaxing walk having had a new stressful
experience. It is important you let your dog process these new
experiences by giving them lots of rest time, and simple easy
walks. You can see the shaved patch on his leg where they
gave him the injection to make him throw up. It's beginning to
grow back but still has a good way to go.

It was a very successful outing. After any big new experience I give Knightley a good day or two at home doing nothing much, just thinking about what he has gone through. So we didn't really do much for the rest of  the week, just normal walks - especially when the rain finally started slackening!

Then this last weekend I took Knightley to our local shopping mall. He has spent a good deal of time outside it, but has never gone in - I assumed he wouldn't be allowed.  But I phoned up the information desk to ask nevertheless, and amazingly enough, they are fine with dogs in training coming in. However I am well aware that Knightley isn't particularly ready for public access training - that generally doesn't happen until assistance dogs are ready to do their jobs at around 12-14 months old. All I wanted from the experience was to introduce Knightley to shopping centres at a young age, and make it a positive experience. There are two entrances/exits quite close to each other, so I was able to go in through big glass sliding doors, have a short walk through the shops and people, past a group of children (one of whom screamed 'DOG!!!' but Knightley just looked around then ignored them), stop for about a minute with my husband, then left my husband to walk towards the other exit, and through the other glass sliding doors.

I praised Knightley to the skies and gave him several handfuls of treats once we were outside. A woman waiting outside smiled to see me giving him so much attention, and I explained it had been his first time inside, and he had been pretty much perfect. She was quite interested, asking questions about Knightley, so I got Knightley to meet her. He is getting better with not rolling over and asking for a tummy rub from everyone he meets, but it will take more work to make it perfect. He was very well mannered though, letting her touch him, but not trying to solicit attention. If anything he was too grave and collected for a 7 month old puppy! We spent some time outside in the quiet in a quiet area so he could relax, and I gave him more attention and treats.

We went back in and walked towards the other doors again. I really like the fact that seeing Knightley brings a smile to peoples faces. Having a rather cute dog in a place where they just don't expect dogs is just something that seems to make many people smile, and in this day and age, the power to make perfect strangers smile is pretty awesome! We found a seat near the doors, as we were waiting for the hubby, and I had Knightley go into a down against the seat (assistance/service dog etiquette is to have the dog under any seats, but this seat was solid, so Knightley couldn't get under it). He just watched people as they went past, and for every person that went past, I gave him a few treats, once again creating that positive association that I talked about previously. It was a fantastic outing, and once the hubby came back, we all three walked together nice and calmly back out.

We've been doing quite a bit of work on loose leash - more than before. I've been using the Comfort Trainer  halter in public and for some of our walks, but I am starting to phase it out some. Our loose leash is great inside, is pretty solid on the road, but once grass and smells come into it, and things like birds...... he loses the idea of keeping the leash loose and following me. I am wondering whether to get either the trainer I talked to many months back, or perhaps a different one which I kind of prefer the look of to help us... as getting this solid is very difficult, made harder by my problems with not being able to treat/click etc easily as one hand has to do everything as my other hand has my crutch. Sigh, we'll see.

Anyway, the hubby leaves for England tomorrow, and we have quite a few things to do to prepare this morning, as well as a blood test for myself. I think Knightley is going to be back sleeping on the bed with me while hubby is gone as 3.5 weeks is a long time..... we've only been separated once since hubby moved to Australia, and that was for 4 days for a conference. I think Knightley will miss the hubby too, but will be happy with the sleeping arrangements. Oh well, time to get moving and do what needs to be done today. That's all for now!

What an amazing dog I have!

6 months 4 weeks 2 days old

I am so very impressed with this gorgeous dog. The visit to the show went ahead despite some very humid/occasionally drizzly weather. It didn't seem to affect the crowds much, there were still a lot of people there! So, this is how the day went.

We got there and were able to park in disabled parking nice and close to the entrance, but it involved walking through 'sideshow alley' to get in, which was full of very loud amusement rides, blaring music, people on microphones trying to sell tickets to various rides and games and so on.... intimidating for some people when they are just coming in, let alone a 7 month old puppy. We could have walked around and gone to another entrance, but we decided to see how Knightley would go. I hadn't fed him the previous night and morning so as to reduce the likelihood of him leaving little presents throughout the show for me to pick up, and to also give me the opportunity to give him heaps of treats throughout the day to help him overcome whatever scary and strange things he may come across. I had got a bunch of stir fry beef from our wonderful local butcher and had slightly cooked it (didn't want to handle raw beef all day). I wanted a very high value treat for whatever we were dealing with was particularly strange or stressful. I also took several handfuls of his old Canidae kibble I still use a bit for training and the like.

The first thing we came across as we went through the gates was a ride with little cars swinging around pretty quickly. Not too crazy but not too sedate. I stopped quite a way back and just let Knightley look at it. He looked pretty relaxed, considering he had never seen brightly coloured flying spinning cars, but I fed him a few pieces of beef to reinforce that loud fast moving things = good. Things were going well, so we took a couple of steps closer, stopped and l fed him a piece of beef. He was quite relaxed still, looking around himself with interest, watching the people go past him into the show... so I started walking towards the ride, keeping up constant praise and giving him a piece of beef every several steps. He was fine! We kept on going until we were past that ride and fully inside the amusement part of the show. I kept up the constant praise with beef, but was slowly winding the beef back as he was doing ok. I watched his body language very carefully, just in case we needed to try to find a less chaotic place, but his tail was up  (even wagging some of the time!), ears were forward not pinned back, his gait was free and easy and he wasn't crouching at all and his eyes were interested, bright, curious... not rolled to the side as a scared dogs eyes are. He looked very good. He just walked steadily beside me.

We did have a couple of issues in this rather crowded section with people patting him without reading the RATHER VISIBLE sign on his new vest, but they were pretty much gone before I could say anything. However later in our time there, there was more patting which I addressed - I will obviously need to come up with a default response to that because I didn't really know what to say to ward them off.

Knightley with the handle attached to his vest looking all
official. What a lovely looking dog he is if I say so myself.

As we had planned we headed for the arena which was much quieter and I was able to sit down.. There were horses in the arena getting presented with ribbons and Knightley watched them curiously but he was ok with them from a distance. However, with the various livestock that had been in the arena there were a lot of flies around and Knightley really hates flies - he can't stop himself from snapping at them, and I'm going to have to try to desensitise Knightley to them because Australia has a lot of flies and getting agitated from snapping at them is no good for an assistance dog.... I'm just not sure how to go about it because you can't just magic up flies when you want them! So as Knightley couldn't settle down there we decided to keep moving. However, because of the problems we had been having with him getting random pats by people, we decided to attach the handle to his harness so I could just hold it very loosely (he isn't allowed to take any of my weight until he is 18 months old) and we hoped it would make him look more 'official' as Australia doesn't have many assistance dogs and the harness handle makes him look a bit more like a guide dog and would make people think twice.

Knightley sitting happily beside me. He was extremely good
at his sit stays, I was so very impressed considering all the
distractions. 

We moved into again a more crowded part, moving through food stalls and lots of stalls selling things and Knightley was doing amazingly well, I just couldn't believe it. He walked patiently and happily by my side, even helping me through the crowd by going for gaps when they appeared.

There was a collection of fire fighting equipment - a modern truck, some older vintage trucks and cars and a smashed up car with those car cutting and separating hydraulics. There was a fireman there in uniform so I asked if I could introduce Knightley to him, as assistance dogs need to be great with people in uniform. You never know when you may be sick or could hurt yourself when you are out somewhere with your dog and need the care of paramedics. Also a working dog is more likely to come across policemen and women so it helps if they are happy with being around them. Some dogs take a particular dislike to people in uniform so I just need to make sure that Knightley's interactions with people in uniform are positive. Later in the day he got to say hello to a policeman, and he was very friendly with him.

We headed into the art exhibition - last year I had two paintings in it - where my dad has won a 1st prize and a 2nd prize. I allowed Knightley to meet the coordinator of the exhibition who was a dog lover and Knightley rolled over for a tummy rub (must stop him doing that!). He was a little more excited in the exhibition for some reason, maybe because it was quieter, was inside and was carpeted. We moved on through a bunch of stalls, bought a few things and Knightley remained so amazingly good. It was like being with a rockstar... so many people pointed at him or commented how cute he was, or said something about 'assistance dog in training'. Knightley didn't even try to get pats - I think there were just so many people he wouldn't have known where to start! Every half an hour or so I allowed him to meet someone - only at my invitation though.

Knightley just before he had his snooze. He spent most of the
day panting, but we gave him water every 20 minutes or so
to keep him as hydrated as possible, and the beef I was giving
him also helped keep him hydrated.

We then went into the cake/flower pavilion which also had some food stalls  - we bought some awesome spices and had some of these rather tasty honey puffs we found at a local festival recently and were pleased to see again.  We sat at a table and I had Knightley go underneath and rest. I took his halter off while he snoozed for a while under the table. I was impressed at how he was able to settle down - I think it was partly because all the noise and crowds had taken quite a bit of his focus and he needed some time out. We stayed there for maybe 20 minutes and he was asleep or half asleep most of the time. When we got moving he was definitely more perky.

There was a lot food on the ground as we walked around, and while I have been doing a fair bit of food zen training, it obviously wasn't enough because he did manage to sneak a bite of a potato chip/fry on the ground, and I had to be on the look out for food from then on. Sometimes he responded well to my leave it cue but if there was half a bucket of chips on the ground around us I had to tighten the leash to prevent him him from scoffing them all up. It was too much to expect him to do perfect zen in a place like that, it was too big a test for him at this stage. Still, he did quite well, but there is a long way to go before he could be professional in a place like that. It will be interesting to see how he behaves there next year, assuming we go.

One of the main reasons I wanted to take him to the show was to get him to see some animals as I had read a story somewhere of a fully trained service dog going nuts at a horse in the course of its job. I really don't want Knightley to run into a police horse or something (or even just one of the cows we have near here as Canberra is scattered with grazing land) and have Knightley freak out. So we headed towards some cows, and I didn't really anticipate that much trouble with them. At first Knightley was ok and then one moved and turned its head towards us and Knightley started barking, so I turned him around quick smart and we retreated. I tried several times more, giving him pieces of beef with every couple of steps he didn't bark, but we really didn't make any headway. The cows we had been approaching were in a shed, so I decided to try with some outside instead. I tried the same technique, slow approach with treats every couple of steps, then about turn when he barked.... but it just wasn't working. So I tried a more BAT technique (behavioural adjustment training) by simply pushing him into actual stress by approaching until he is just about to barking and then turning around and walking the other way, relieving the stress. Then doing it again and getting just a bit closer. It didn't seem to be working though, we couldn't get much closer and we were getting barks. So instead I moved ahead of him and called him to me. That worked a lot better. He would come to me, then dance back and look like he wanted to bark but then come back to me. We did that for a while until he was quite a bit closer, and then went back to the shed. My husband helped there by calling Knightley to him. We got close to the entrance of the shed, much closer than before... and decided to leave it there. We are hoping to go away for a weekend down to a farm which will give us more of a chance to meet animals. This was a good first step though and was good experience for me doing trial and error training.

Knightley looking completely gorgeous but very
tired at the end of the day. I was so so proud of
him for all he did.

By this time Knightley was starting to get tired so we started to head back to the entrance, but stopped to buy a couple of show bags of chocolate (Knightley also had some treats bought for him!). He was rapidly losing his remaining energy at this point and kept on lying down whenever we stopped, and wouldn't get up despite encouragement. My husband had to pull on the handle of the vest to get him to stand. Once he was standing he was happy enough to keep going, but once he got settled he was reluctant to move. We walked back through the amusement park part of the show to get out, and while walking past I talked my husband into playing a lucky number game where getting a lucky number got you a choice of a rather large stuffed animal. He completely failed on the first card with four numbers, but on the second card he won. There was this cute huge dog he could have chosen, but instead chose this 4 foot tall banana with dreadlocks and an evil grin (will try to get a photo of it later). Couldn't believe it when it was MY idea for him to play the lucky number game.... the banana was ridiculous!!!!

We got back to the carpark and got home and both Knightley and I were absolutely exhausted from our day. We collapsed into our respective beds and slept the rest of the afternoon away. Now it's the following day and Knightley seems completely recovered but I've finally come down with some sort of virus after a few days of a sore throat. Nevermind, yesterday was worth it!

Worried about a lump on Knightley and more socialisation

6 months 3 weeks 1 day old

Knightley has had what looks like a little hot spot (a fungal infection that develops after a dog gets wet and doesn't dry quickly enough to stop the fungus from forming - Golden Retrievers are particularly susceptible to it) on one side of his muzzle for the last couple of days, and I have tried hard to keep it as dry as possible, although there was little else I could do. The common household remedy suggested for hotspots online isn't available in Australia (Gold Bond Medicated Foot Powder - the stuff used for athletes foot, the powder keeps it dry and also treats the fungus), but it seemed to be slowly getting better, and it was tiny anyway. I had noticed a very small mark on the other side of his muzzle, it just looked like the fur was slightly thin there, but had paid it no heed because the hot spot (or whatever it was) was so much more obvious. Anyway, today the pinkish spot looked a bit worse, so I actually felt it. Imagine my surprise when it was actually quite a firm large lump - about the size of a baby pea. This has pretty much freaked us out. Golden's get a LOT of cancer (hubby is calling this the 'c' word) and I have to say, this is what I thought when I finally actually *saw* this lump properly. He is surely too young though? I have heard of a year old, but 7 odd months? The lump is pink and shiny and the hair has fallen out on top of it. I am going to phone the vet as soon as they open tomorrow, and get an appointment. Cross your fingers for us, let's really really just hope it's a simple benign lump that won't even need any intervention.

Before the hubby and I started getting stressed about the lump I first took Knightley up to the local shops for some socialisation and training (they are very close, so it's an ideal socialisation trip). It is like a mini mall, a complex of shops built into one building, so we took a walk around the whole building. We stopped at the entrances in order to just sit and watch people going in and out with a nice loose leash, and also get even more used to automatic doors (we've done this quite a bit already). We did some nice heeling, and I asked for a range of cues in a quieter place in the shade. It was pretty hot! It makes me aware how hard it would be for him to work at this time of the year for a good chunk of the day, unless he was inside. There's a sports bar that has tables outside and serves alcoholic beverages I go past on my way to and from the shops, and today there were two dogs tied up outside it and they go quite aggressive as Knightley and I went past. On the way there Knightley found it hard to focus on me, despite repeated 'leave it' cues that only worked for a couple of seconds..... the dogs really looked and sounded legitimately aggressive and Knightley doesn't have much experience with that, so I wasn't surprised he had trouble focusing. However, on the way back, the dogs did the same thing, but Knightley virtually took it in his stride. He did turn to look at them once as we were leaving, but a 'leave it!' go him back to heeling nicely. I was impressed! If he can have one new experience on every socialisation trip then I am happy.

He actually had two, as the party I mentioned in my last blog entry was a birthday party, and there was a big shiny banner blowing around in the road this morning when I was walking him up to the shops. Knightley was very suspicious of it, I think mainly because with the wind moving it, it looked potentially alive. So we backed up to where he wasn't acting spooked, and every time he looked at it I said yes! and gave him a treat, then took a couple of steps forward. Before we knew it, he was happily standing in front of it. Then a big gust of wind blew it around and he danced back several steps in surprise. So I picked up the banner, and cued 'touch!' and suddenly he forgot his issue with it and came forward and touched it with his nose. I gave him a whole handful of treats, and he completely relaxed. When we returned it was still blowing around (the hungover party-ers did surface and clean up eventually), but Knightley completely ignored it. Success!

Anyway, Knightley and I had a hour or so to recover from the heat, and then he, hubby and I went out to the local fresh foot markets, which we have been taking Knightley to since he got all his shots at 14.5 weeks old. It has been a while since we last went though, so I was interested to see what would happen, especially in light of yesterday's cafe practice. We went to have coffee at one of the cafes there, and after sitting down, Knightley immediately went into a down of his own accord. I was really really happy and impressed with him! I guess he remembered the down jackpot from yesterday.... either that or he was still tired from the walk to the shops. Either way, he got another jackpot. He did get up several times - there was a potato chip (fry to you North Americans) that I kept having to remind him to 'leave it' as it was within reach of his down and really must have been quite torturous to lie next to - but it was good practice and he always went back into a down, usually of his own accord. I had his 'please pat me' patches pinned to his harness, and he had some good attention, and he was nicely polite - although he rolled over for tummy rubs to one of the people sigh. I have to work on him remaining in a sitting position. We walked along the length of the markets, past people eating and having coffee, and Knightley didn't try to jump up on them or bother them - although he was pulling a little, sometimes suddenly. This is the situation I need the Comfort Trainer for, just until he learns that not pulling is a universal requirement.

A short time later we were walking past a particular book shop at the markets that I know to be a friendly shop, and I asked if I could come in briefly with Knightley. The young guy at the register said sure, so Knightley and I walked around the shelves. He was really great! The leash was nice and loose and he was very polite and didn't overtly sniff anything. I got him to sit and down - the down took two repeats of the cue but not too surprising in such a new place. Overall it was a great visit to the markets. It was at the end of the markets that we realised that the mark on his muzzle was actually quite a significant lump and started stressing, so it ruined a good outing a little. Nevertheless, it has been a productive weekend in Knightley's socialisation, and he is doing great!                                                                  

A successful public outing, and training to prepare us for the show!

Today was great! I misplaced (let's be frank...... lost!) my sunglasses recently and I am very very picky about sunglasses. I get migraines very easily, and one of my triggers is very bright light, so I never ever leave the house without my sunnies on. They also have to fit really well... if they press on the wrong place then they will actually trigger a migraine, sigh! So for the last two days, every time I have been outside the house I've had my eyes half closed! I am sure they have just fallen down the side of something, but that doesn't help me now. So, the hubby and I had planned to go out to our local fresh food markets today and take Knightley, and do some public access type training in advance for next weekend... but because of the missing sun glasses we went out to a nearby small casual shopping district - a site that used to be one of the regions earliest farms when this area was settled by Europeans. Anyway, there is a great shop there that sells everything to do with the sun - and being sun sensitive because of the lupus I have bought a lot of there over the last couple of years. There is also a great restaurant that has generous servings, the food is very tasty and has a bunch of outside tables. Hubby and I wondered if they would let us have Knightley at those tables, as a socialisation/training exercise - even though he isn't officially a Assistance Dog in training and won't be for another 5 or so months. Hubby checked as soon as we arrived and they said yes, but we went to get the sunnies first as Knightley was pretty excited at being in a brand new place. It was definitely the right thing to do, by the time I had chosen a pair of sunnies and we got back to the restaurant, Knightley was heeling quite nicely and had calmed down a lot.

It was a little hard to find the right table for us to sit at, and they were small cafe tables - very hard for Knightley to lie under one because it had one support in the middle that then branched out into multiple legs. Lying under the table is what is expected of an assistance dog, and I have taught him an 'under' cue, but GAH sometimes the table makes it hard! Not only that, there were heaps and heaps of flies, kids running around and playing on the nearby playing equipment, flocks of tiny little sparrows going after leftover crumbs and larger Australian magpies stealing big chunks of the leftovers. Of course for a nearly 7 month old puppy this was all shouting 'COME CHASE ME!!!!' and at first he did get pretty restless. I had been asking for downs, but it just wasn't going to happen... mostly because there seemed to be more flies down there for some reason and they were driving Knightley kind of mad. He couldn't keep from snapping and driving at them, although my zen 'leave it' cue stopped him for a short time, but not for long. Knightley has always been a fly snapper. Then there was two quiet-ish barks in protest at the whle situations - mostly at the flies and the sparrows, which was hopping around only a couple of metres away (6-7 feet or so) and rather driving Knightley mad who had never been that close to birds before. However, no matter the reason, it was unacceptable and I quickly took Knightley away from the table (thankfully our food hadn't yet arrived!). We went to a slightly quieter area and I asked for a sit and eye contact in order to re-establish our connection a bit and calm him down. Once away from the pesky flies and the frustrating sparrows, Knight calmed quickly, and we went back to the table. This time I decided I would be happy with a sit if it was a calm sit, and was right by my side, partly under the table (out of the way of waiters etc) and so that's how we preceded, much more successfully too. Our food came and we were able to eat without worrying about him. He started relaxing more and more, and then suddenly went into a down under the table. I had some treats with me, and quickly jackpotted (lots of treats in a row) him for this... to do it of his own choice was really great! He stayed in a down for the rest of the meal. What a good puppy. For a puppy to overcome the distractions and to have ended up nigh on perfect is more impressive than an adult dog that does it all the time IMO. I was very happy with Knightley, and it gave him great experience coping with distractions - there certainly will be a few next weekend!

Practicing 'on your mat' with the Manners Minder. He is actually 
mid treat in this photo - the little red light on the Manners Minder   
comes on when the mechanism is working to deliver a treat...
which is why Knightley has his hungry maw in the treat bowl part.

This afternoon and evening we practiced training behaviours I want polished for our outing next weekend. We did a bunch of 'on your mat', both with the Manners Minder (MM) and without. The MM is so very very good at extending behaviours like Knightley's 'on your mat'. I'd really like to get this very very good in the next week, and be able to take a mat with us next weekend and have him rest on the mat whenever I want him to just have some time out from everything and have a bit of a snooze. I know he will find it tiring, so a extra portable bed would be great. We'll do a lot of work on this, although I am not really happy with any of the mat options I have, so I'll be looking out for a new harder wearing no slip mat.

We also did a bunch of zen exercises with a left over cooked chicken bone (which seemed to smell nearly irresistable!) and with a large disposable cup lying on the road (there is a big party at a house in our street and someone left the cup on the road) which had the benefit of being a complete unknown. The chicken bone was sooo tempting. He was fine when it was in my hand, and was able to stay away from it with no problems, but as soon as it went on the floor........ We used the MM again for this. At first I had to pull him away from where the bone was, and I stopped using the cue because it just wasn't working as the stimulus of the bone was too much to overcome. When he stopped fighting the leash and trying to get to the bone (loose leash work still to do!) I would turn away with him towards the MM and press the remote in all one movement - so really he was being rewarded when he stopped trying to get to the chicken bone. 

Working on zen with an ultra attractive chicken bone. My foot
 is ready to cover it if Knightley tries to go for it, but once he
gets to this stage he is pretty reliable. I love zen, I think it is
what makes the difference between a bratty uncontrollable puppy
and a nice dog to live with. Note our lovely loose leash!

Slowly he realised that a) he wasn't going to get to it even if he pulled b) stopping pulling often gets him treats in the past and this seemed to be the case here again and c) he was getting to eat something anyway, even if it wasn't the chicken bone, and it was much easier to get the treats, no pulling and choking. Eventually I put the 'leave it' cue back in, once he understood the exercise, and continued using the MM for the treats. I could have just done it myself of course, but I liked being about to walk in little circles and have the treat there immediately without fumbling for it or having to bend. It really is great for anyone with any mobility issues at all. I can't even imagine how wonderful it would be for trainers in wheelchairs! We finished the session off by doing a few 'leave its' with the bone in front of Knightley within his range - although I had my foot ready to cover it if absolutely necessary. 

Later we worked on the cup on the road, which was easier... although in that case we had curiosity to combat instead of greed! At first we started a good 4-5 metres away, and instead of using a 'leave it' cue, I made kissy noises to attract his attention, and he then got a treat when he focused on me instead of the cup. After doing that several times, I made the noise then said 'leave it' which worked very well! He got his treat and we moved on. After a few more repeats, I just used the cue. Every time we went past we got closer and   closer and he was able to 'leave it'. I figured disposable cups - or similar - are something he may have to deal with next weekend, so I will grab some out of the cupboard and continue to work with them.

So it was a good day for Knightley and I. Lots of new things experienced and learnt - he's going to need those skills in adaptability and flexibility next weekend! Really can't wait to see how he handles it.