Photos with Rachel

These are from Rachel's visit on 10/28/17. Terra's cuddles make people very happy.

Hiking photos

These were from our hike by Putah Creek in Davis on 10/28/17. Terra's ears were doing funny puppy things the whole time.

Random recent pictures

Hanging with Aviv

Outside Lowe's

At the Fast CAT trial

Meeting another Wolfhound

Playing with her Malinois friend

In a pen during Chimera's agility class

Digging a hole in the gravel

Playing with a small boarding dog

Day 50 (10/30/17): PetSmart, doggy playtime, no more cheese

The Belgian Malinois is back for four days. The girls were so happy to see each other. I still have to referee the Malinois' play but I can see that Terra is bigger and sturdier than during her last stay.

She lost a canine (lower right) during play and ended up getting blood onto her own leg.

In the evening we took a trip to PetSmart; I was training the Malinois there anyway, so I brought Terra along. She was more overstimulated than she has been in the past, and so we mostly just walked all around, and did a little bit of training on leash walking. She is still nervous about people approaching her directly but it is continuing to slowly diminish.

Terra had diarrhea the past couple days and then cleared up. It correlated with getting string cheese. That is sad, as it was her very favorite treat, even better than cooked chicken.

Day 49 (10/29/17): park walk, puppy class

I had two appointments in Davis and then puppy class, so I brought Terra along for the day. She's so good in the car. She's never tried to chew anything up and just sleeps. I always leave the engine running and AC on unless it's already dark, since she gives off a lot of body heat.

We walked around Northstar Park. There's a pond there, but I was disappointed to see that it was inaccessible. We ran around and wrestled and played with a stick.

The puppy class instructor had asked the students to bring costumed kids. She set out little buckets with candy in front of everyone's mats and had the kids go around and collect the candy. Terra has always shown a positive interest in kids but I'm cautious and don't let her interact with kids I don't know. She also gets nervous if she's stationary and someone is approaching her directly. So I set our mat a good ways back from our bucket, and gave her cheese every time a kid went by.

The instructor also brought a bunch of doggy Halloween outfits for people to put on their pups. (She emphasized making it fun and not forcing anything.) Terra was slightly weird out by the pile of colorful stuff spread on the ground, so we just walked among the costumes and let her sniff.

I initially turned down joining in puppy playtime, but this time the instructor had brought along her new adult male Windsprite, and he was zooming around with the pups. I thought that Terra would want to play with him. She initially chose to play with a little white Poodley dog, and was polite with him until he started running circles around his owner and she followed and everyone almost got tangled in his line. I got ahold of Terra and redirected her. Finally after that, she and the Windsprite started running around. He could turn on a dime and she's much too clumsy for that. The sprinting tired her out well.

Day 48 (10/28/17): first hike, Rachel visiting

We drove to Davis and hiked a trail next to Putah Creek. Terra was off leash but came to me when called. More importantly, she came to me for reassurance whenever we saw people coming. She got bolder and wandered farther, following Chimera, on our way back. There wasn't a lot of room for the dogs to stretch out but she got a few short sprints in. I so miss having Redwood Regional Park right outside my front door.

After the hike, she napped soundly in the car while I worked with a boarding dog.

My bestie Rachel came to spend the rest of the day with us. I heard her pull up and opened the front door and called out to her. When she knows that someone is approaching and I'm greeting them, she assumes that the visitor is a friend. She immediately wanted to greet Rachel. She got cuddles throughout the day from both of us, and napped while we did cleaning and yard projects. Adorable pictures coming soon.

Day 47 (10/27/17): PetCo, downtown, formal training update

We went into PetCo for about 15 minutes. This was Terra's first time in this location. We ran through some of her skills: eye contact/IYC, stand-stay, chin target, hand target. We did some walking around, including into a pen that they use for training, which has a narrow entrance (intimidating!). I am impressed with how responsive Terra is to small amounts of leash pressure, which I still haven't gotten around to actually training at home with no distractions. I am adding the cue "wait" when I want her to stop forward movement. She often, of her own accord, then backs up so that she is closer to me and lined up at my left side. OMG looooove

In the evening we went downtown, for the last street fair of the year. We mostly stayed in the park adjacent to the fair, watching people come and go and listening to the noises. There were a few times she experienced trigger stacking (ie, someone coming toward us plus a loud noise plus barking dog in distance) but overall she did well, as usual. Practiced eye contact and chin target.

Curling up with her snuggle buddy in the car.

Considering chasing her tail.

Our formal training stalled out while I was down, so let's figure out where we are:
IYC/eye contact: fairly solid when I have a closed fist with treats inside at eye level. Can contrast with hand target (two fingers sticking out and cue "touch"). Progressing to placing fist closer to her head and making contact, a la Sue Ailsby's "no hand" for conformation. (Teaches dog to hold still while you handle them even if you are holding food in your hand.)

Touch: fairly solid nose touch to two fingers pointing out. Cue is "touch." Mostly using this to gauge her ability to focus among distractions.

Stand-stay: Goes into solid stand reliably. Cue is the two finger "touch" leading quickly away from her nose and up. Will hold for about 5 seconds unless around distractions. Working on being able to step in front of her as if assessing her stack while she holds focus on the hand. (After that I'll add more of my own movement, then handling.)

Chin target: fairly solid on placing her chin in my hand, and because she enjoys the contact, she often rests her head heavily on it. Awww. Adding duration, currently at 2 seconds. Working from both stand and sit.

Paw target: using a plastic coaster. Reliable in placing her paw on it when I hold it on the floor. If my hand is not touching it, she does a swipe instead of a place. I'm backing up to get more reinforcement for deliberate placement rather than swiping. (After that I will move on to using the paw target for body awareness exercises.)

Mat: usually places all four feet on her new, large mat. When I add duration she naturally sits and then lies down (because she is lazy) and I reward that.

Hand stripping: doesn't seem to mind stripping her ears. I keep it short and use high value treats after every tug. I need to introduce her to the bucket game.


I want to teach her to bark on cue, but I don't want to reinforce barking when she currently does it (when she wants out of her crate or when she's on the other side of the baby gate and wants attention). So I'm experimenting with having her with us while I practice barking with Chimera.