Week 3 (16 Weeks) (04/23/12)

17.5 pounds

Monday

Not much going on today, Nova seems to be getting the hang of “down” as she can consistently do it even if it’s not a training session.  She seems to still have qualms about doing it outside, but I guess the floors cold, she’ll being doing it outside in time.  I was going to start teaching “stay” today but she got a little dirty over the weekend and the next time I take a bath with her I want to use a hair dryer to make the drying process a little easier.  So her daily treat supply will be funneled toward this instead.

(How my dog sees the hair dryer [that’s actually a real dryer])

How I plan on doing it:

1: Walk about 1m to it and sit down and just chill, I’ll give her a treat if she comes to me.  If not I’ll move farther away next session. 

2. Once she O.K with being right next to the hair dryer I’ll start blowing her fur with it.  I have to be calm and collected throughout, I have to be strong and show her that this is totally normal and nothing to be afraid of.  I also don’t want to rush, dog owners (me included) tend to want results, when regarding fear you have to take it super slow.  Any mistakes tend to compound and you end up with a month long correction process. 

Confidence, be chill and slow. Got to keep that in mind every time I do this.

Tuesday

Started teaching “stay” today, I swear Nova knew all these commands before I taught them.  She picks them up really fast.  After the first two attempts she already gets the gist of the command.  Now it’s rinse and repeat about a billion times.  I’ll probably teach this trick very passively, much like “here”.  Every time I bring Nova out for a little stroll in the garden I bring 2 treats and I call “here” at random times.  If it’s good enough she gets a treat.  I’ve pretty much gotten to the point with “here” where I no longer use treats so it’s a great time to throw in a couple “stays” each time with a treat as reward.  Today I was able to get around 5 meters (sorry America I hate feet) away.  I want to make sure to not rush it.  Often I see owners who say their dog is too hyper or something to do stay, more often than not they ask their dog to “stay” for extended periods when something really exciting is going on.  “Stay”, more so then any other trick, needs constant practice under varying situations.  “Stay” in your sterile, quite room is much different than outside with another dog present or something of the sort. 

Speaking of dog training, I made the best pot roast ever today!  Just look at that baby:

(The flash makes it look like that, it isn’t actually primordial goo)

Thursday

My friend came over today to “study”, being the stellar examples of academic genius that we are we spent very little time actually studying and spent a lot playing games.  As a result I wasn’t as vigilant as I normally am and Nova pee’d insideL.  Nova understands that she’s to only pee outside and yet she can only hold it for less than 2hrs (if she’s awake).  While her exact age is unknown, assuming she’s 4 months old she should be able to hold it for around 5 hours.  Considering that she can hold it all night I’m a little be confused why she wants to go so badly within the hour of going.  Maybe something to do with her bladder, I’ll talk to vet when I see him.

(“I can study with the dog, I swear!”)

Friday

One day before the first finals!  In order to get Nova out of my face (and just because I wanted to) Nova got a real nice long walk.  We met a really nice looking German Shepherd, sadly the owner had no control over it.  He could barely hold it back with the leash.  For some reason Nova seem extremely calm and didn’t really lunge back we made me really proud.  Worked more on “stay” today, she’s doing very well.  On a side note though her “here” is kind of crap when her attention is occupied, and she takes her time coming back, may have to spice it up with treats for a while.  The same applies to “down”.  I thought I had it to the point of where she knew the command, however this appears to not be the case, may have to spend another day or two working on it in command sessions with treats.

Saturday

Many times people ask me if training a dog is hard, and I have trouble answering the question.  On one hand no, a 10 mile run is hard; every step of the way you want to stop and you have to force yourself to go on.  Dog training is fun and enjoyable.  On the other hand it is hard, while the success and bonding you get with your dog makes interaction hardly a chore, it does take discipline to maintain and keep up with the goals you set for yourself and your fury friend.  For example; today I had no motivation what so ever to do any training or practice.  That’s alright, however as many know: if you start slacking on something before you know it it’s no longer routine.  Some days it’s fine to just sit back and do nothing, but maybe you’re better off sucking it up and going for it.  Normally at 6 or so I do around 20min of fetch with Nova and I was considering not doing it, I ended up doing it anyway and after the fact I was glad I did. 

Most dogs need more than the bare minimum of stimulation and if you make a habit of not doing anything exciting with your dog you have a recipe for disaster on your hands.  This applies to all dogs, not just the high energy ones.  Since we’re on the topic of high energy dogs (by high energy I mean dogs like border collies, JRT etc.) working them out is a great way to tire them out, however if you just do a long walk everyday you’ll have average results, if you add in training sessions as well as some type of fetch you’ll get a tired obedient dog in a way that just exercise could never get (mileage may vary)

Oh on a final note; I gave Nova another bath today.  Smell bugs me, and I don’t get use to them, as a result I bathe my dogs regularly (3 -4 times a month), I’m hoping I can get Nova to like the bath so it’s not WW3 every time I clean her.

Nova still gets really cold after the bathes (I do dry her, but it’s never enough) so I give her some warm broth for lunch with some kibble in it and then take a nap with her.