Friday, November 25, 2011

A busy week or so

Prep for the Thanksgiving holiday (and the 5k that I ran that morning) has kept me quite busy, and a little slower in Fizz's formal work.  We're still doing a lot of things for socialization, and sneaking in 4-5 short training sessions per day, but none has been recorded.

Fizz has visited friends at church after the service, met people and dogs at the pet supply shop, hung outside of a grocery store the night before Thanksgiving, meeting lots of last minute shoppers.   While there we checked out both the squeaky-wheeled shopping carts, and the auto-open doors.

About a week ago, Fizz had her first bath.  I usually try to bathe puppies in their first week home, but timing just did not lend to that.  She was fine with the water, being scrubbed and being rinsed off.   After she was out, I definitely saw the beginnings of the characteristic "Rottweiler run amuck" behavior that seems to occur after all baths.   You know.......when the still wet dog runs itself across every piece of furniture, cabinets, and anything else upright that it can find, leaving a trail of fur and "wet dog" smell.    Yeah, we saw the beginnings of that in the bathoom (rubbing into the rug, snorting..........all very cute.........but!).

Last weekend, Fizz had her first weekend away, out in the Berkshires.  She's a wonderful car traveller, just goes right to sleep and doesn't make a peep.  She got to enjoy some trail walks with Vikka around the old Christmas tree farm, and had a blast visiting the S. Egremont library.  In addition to adventures, we worked on some known behaviors and also dremmeled her nails.......something I do about every 2-3 days.  

 Being called in by James and Emilie



 Meeting Cathy, the Asst Librarian

Getting treats from the Librarian, who is known to my kids as their Mimi.  :)



Fizz is getting very pushy in her chin heeling, which I love.   Her tuck sits are getting fast, and she's already showing anticipation in the set-up behavior, trying to turn around into a sit as fast as she can.   Its fun to watch the brain work and figure out how to make me reward her.  She sits for crate door opening now, and is also sitting for doors to open on a regular basis.   Games such as "play with MY toy" are going well, she's very willing to switch from one toy to another, even if she has the more favored toy. 

On Thanksgiving, Fizz came with me to the city of Providence in Rhode Island.  I ran a 5k race, and then brought her out to socialize afterwards.   We had parked in a parking garage, and lots of people were leaving to get home to cook.  All the noise and echoing went unnoticed.   Every person we saw, she happily greeted and the look on her face regarding those who passed us by.......well, how could the miss such a cute puppy???   We met the camera man for the local ABC station.  Thankfully she did NOT eat the spaghetti pile of cords sticking out of his bag.  Before we headed back to the car, we found a circle of chairs with see-through wire mesh seats.   She was completely unbothered by being able to see through this odd footing, as I asked her to walk the circle of chairs.

After downtown, we stopped in at a friend's house to see one of my C litter boys, and to catch up.  Had a wonderful visit, and Fizz even got to play with Calvin (who is now 6).  She had a blast playing with someone that looked like her (and was very tolerant of her puppy antics).  As we were leaving, their son was out front playing with bubbles, and oh BOY was that fun!   Almost as much fun as the winter moths we saw and chased about tonight.

Today Fizz finally met her 'cousin,' Spencer.  Spencer is an almost-2yr old yellow Lab.  He likes to play and can be quite rambunctious, so they only met on leash, and then went for a nice walk together.  While out for our walk, we worked set-ups (getting into heel position) in a totally strange environment, I rewarded for all heads-up eye contact (while in RZ)......boy can this girlie move out at a trot and give awesome eye contact! :) :)    I worked recalls off some fairly high-distraction scents (including dead vole), and she came promptly with good attitude each time.  Thank you Susan Garrett!!!   Can't wait for Recallers 3.0!  :)  

Final trick of the day was hand targets, haven't worked them much recently.   Started with basic ones, and then decided to put it above her head, a la Susan G.'s new method of teaching stand (and with the intent of maybe teaching 'sit pretty' from it too).   I was really impressed with her willingness to pop up to my hand and touch.   Bet we can get that fun stand figured out in the next session or two!   Will try to video tape.

I know you need some puppy cuteness, so I share with you some of Fizz's funny sleeping choices.  This puppy never just sleeps on her side.  She's either upside on her back, sometimes with her neck at a horrendous angle, often with face mashed against the crate, or she's burrowed under the bed.   Enjoy!