Sorry, it has definitely been a while! Holidays were very busy, and Oreo enjoyed them! She got some new toys and a coat. She was shivering at one of the classes, so I figured I’d get her a coat. Of course now it has been unusually warm for winter! She’s made lots of progress. She loves everyone at classes and hardly notices the other dogs.
It is time to switch gears though. She loves the people so much, she isn’t working with me. Oreo now just wants to see the people and will not respond to cues. So today at training we decided to switch our focus. We are now focusing on greeting people, but also focusing on working together. We had her say hello to one person at a time. In order to say hi, she had to hand target before greeting the person. If she couldn’t target, then she would go back into the car. We are going to practice using a life reward, instead of treats. If she does what I want, then she gets what she wants. I give her 10 seconds to respond to the cue. She doesn’t always go to the car, if after 10 seconds she turns around and walks with me, she is giving me attention and responding partly. Therefore we walk back to the outside of the car and try again. Next time we are trying something called the “flower design” for greeting, so she learns to focus on me more.
In other news, she has been very good with me cleaning her ears. I am going to warm up the witch hazel next time I clean her ears. After a few times, perhaps she will like it more. She has been excessively itchy. There was a long while she started itching her eyes again after they already cleared. However, after switching her back to 1/2 raw (one meal a day) it has gotten a little better. I would like to switch her to fully raw, but she still refuses to eat it sometimes. It has to be mixed with something very yummy. I am starting to think maybe her kibble needs a change…
Not sure, but I do know her itching increased when she wasn’t on raw for a little while. She would refuse to eat her food in the evening. I could of course just not feed her and take it away & wait until she gives in…but… then she will be sick in the morning. She has too much stomach acid that will make her throw up in the morning if she doesn’t eat (oh the fun!).
I have slacked a bit on the training at home. She has been much better walking around the neighborhood, and is more fearful at parks now. She is constantly sniffing, but to the point she doesn’t want to move. That has definitely been a turn around. I need to get back into training her and teaching her some new tricks. She hasn’t learned a new trick in a while. I’d like to teach her to play bow. I have to click when she does it to “catch” the moment. Otherwise she won’t bow with luring, she does “leave it” too well.
She has some red bumps on her stomach from allergies, and has started getting some brown spots on her stomach which have me a little concerned. I’m going to put some probiotics in water and put it on her stomach maybe that will help! Hope everyone had great holidays!!
Apprehensive Oreo 