Stress Happens

I've thought a lot about blogging again. It really takes brain power to write things people want to read, or really great pictures. It seems my interest in either of those things has fallen by the wayside for many months. Part of it was the "BIG MOVE TO THE CITY" and part of it was a lack of actually training the dogs to have something to post about. The dogs and I have spent a lot of time being busy, stressed, overwhelmed, and just plain burnt out. I've been to the doctor because I was sick, they've both been to many doctors for not feeling well and it's finally all ready to spill out.

As I was driving to Tim's house last night (for those not in-the-know, he's my boyfriend, and he's pretty awesome... he is with me after all) I took note of the self-stimming I was doing. It's a stress induced habit I've had for as long as I can remember. When I'm not stressed, it happens never. When I am stressed, it happens multiple times per day. When I'm on the "other side," the downward/good side, of the stress-bell-curve, I self-interrupt and laugh. With a few mild changes along the way, my self-stim has been pretty much the same: I drum my fingers in a very rhythmic pattern on my thumb. Let's just say that it happens almost daily since I've moved to the city. I really only started to realize it again a couple weeks ago though.

Why does anyone care about my autistic characteristics? Because I've realized in the last week or so that not only has my dog been significantly over threshold nearly every single day since the move, I have been too.

You see, the dogs and I come from a place where the sounds at night are crickets and coyotes and frogs in spring, summer, and fall. In the dead of winter, there are no noises except maybe the crackle of a fireplace, or the occasional snowmobile. Sirens outside mean a tragedy is happening within hearing range and if it gets closer you start to worry about the neighbors. (And let me tell you, any house within a mile or so is considered a neighbor because otherwise we wouldn't get to use the word!)

Running. Bailey's favorite past-time.

We weren't accustomed to the overwhelmingly constant noise and stimulation of city life. As a matter of fact, aside from going to hang out with my gym buddies 3 mornings a week, the only time I really saw other people is when I made a point of doing so. Work was mostly harmonious and while a lot of my day was spent interacting with people, I also spent a good chunk of it hanging out with some really good therapy. If something stressed me out, I took a mental break outside with one of my favorite board and train dogs, and that was acceptable. We also had an assortment of clinic cats, adoption cats, and the owners' dogs to pet and cuddle. I never realized how much of an impact those animals really made on my sanity.

Ruca adored being able to run full tilt without a care in the world.

When this big move to the city happened, I made the mistake of asking myself, and Bailey, to just take the plunge. As a result, all we could do is try to keep swimming. The longer we lived here in that state of mind, the worse we got. She has a history of being a reactive dog. Through training, medication, and dedication, I was able to show her in obedience, agility, and rally successfully for a couple years with just a few modifications to help us both be successful. 

As for myself, this new job I signed up for came with some requirements I was not prepared for. I was expected to be alert and focused for nearly 8 straight hours. My day job is helping adults with developmental disabilities gain employment. The way the program runs, and apparently the way many programs run, is on the absolute minimum of staff possible. Everything is about "numbers" meaning we have to keep the correct staff to person served ratio constantly. There are no traditional breaks, and I get a paid "lunch-half" as long as "numbers are good." I was so mentally exhausted for the whole first month or more that I had to come home and take a nap. Every single day.

I didn't really take it all in and process it until last Wednesday, when the Board Certified Veterinary Behaviorist we saw was an advocate for my dog. All the stress I was experiencing accumulated and it reflected on my dog. Not only were we both having a difficult time coping with all these changes, but I started to fail her in pretty big ways. I put her in situations I knew she couldn't handle, because I thought for a few weeks that increasing her physical exercise would help the situation, or that just enough stimulation in general would tire her out. Bailey was thrown into situation after situation that sent her over threshold, in an honest (but half-brained) attempt to help her. She became a dog I had never known. Her dog reactivity threshold was so low she couldn't even see a dog down the block without staring, circling, and wuffing. (As previously mentioned, this is a dog who had successfully competed in obedience and agility for years, with nary a glimpse of reactivity.) Going over threshold nearly every single day meant that she never really "came down" from that adrenaline high. She then developed separation anxiety. To the point that on multiple occasions she was howl/scream/barking for hours on end and there was nothing I could do about it, because I had to be at work.

So we had to make changes. I accepted the fact that we'd all be staying in more, in the bedroom. I sent Bailey to stay with my mom a couple of times in order to let her actually relax for an extended period of time. And I gave myself a break. I really didn't have to do ALL THE THINGS after all. I took more frequent trips back to my happy-place-home-land with the dogs. Just to breathe in the fresh air and hear familiar sounds.

Buzz enjoys just walking through the tall grass.

Last Wednesday, Bailey and I saw Dr. Duxbury. It was the most relaxing and enjoyable learning experience I've had in a while. We got some homework, some different advice, and a new medication to try on an as needed basis. Bailey and I even did a bit of work last night out in public and she was awesome, because our brains were in the right place. When she told me she'd had enough of working, I listened and took her home. 

Life has been a lot better these last two weeks. It has slowed down to a bearable pace, and we've been able to enjoy it. I knew city life would be hard for us, but I had no idea just how hard until it really hit me like a ton of bricks. We're moving past it and hopefully I've learned enough from it to help us all cope a whole lot better, at least until a living situation where we aren't exposed to so much stimulus, is found.

We are really trying to embrace city life. This was taken on our front retaining wall.

The Littlest Big Girl Spaniel

Bailey's been having a really rough time lately. The move has been really hard on her, all of these adjustments have been more than she can tolerate so her mental state is compromised nearly constantly. Add into that mix the fact that she's dealing with multiple physical-medical issues as well and I'm feeling pretty down about my little girl spaniel. I'm being as proactive and reactive as I can possibly be. We've got an appointment with Dr. Duxbury at the University of MN Veterinary Medical Center's Behavior Department, we've been to see multiple veterinarians about her other issues and have an appointment for more at 9:30 tomorrow morning. So to shake the "woe is us" mindset, I tracked down some pictures that remind me of who she is when she's physically and mentally sound.

Of course, if you can spare any good thoughts, we'll take them. For now, I've got both of my best elderly spaniels sprawled out next to me and it's a good night.

Establishing Routines

First, a video from our backyard!


I think we've finally settled into something that resembles a routine. They're getting at least a short walk around the block 5-7 mornings a week. This is always a short leash and collar walk as it gives us time to work on the skill with very infrequent stimulus. I'm also planning for a longer walk (30-60 minutes) every work evening. So far this week, I've succeeded. A downside to this city walking business is that I have to plan ahead more because otherwise we only walk on sidewalks.

Walking only on sidewalks is a problem because Buzz has been dragging his rear feet more lately (or I just noticed it because we're walking on pavement and he made a rear nail bleed yesterday)! So... today I haphazardly trimmed the fur all four feet and he wore boots on both rear feet. I also made it a mission to walk on grass as much as possible! We scouted out a whole new area in our "neighborhood" even!

Bailey alerted to two dogs across the street and down. She's really been more reactive this week and I'm still not sure why. We did not play LAT, instead I asked for right side walking and fed while walking until the other dog was behind us. I think my new goal behavior is for her to recognize a dog is there and then ask to continue moving. I'll see if we can set up scenarios like that in class.

We also alternate leashes. Buzz always starts out on the Flexi because his leash behaviors are always better (unless we're in a pet supply store). Bailey always starts out on a 6 foot leash. They both wear harnesses and when we find open space I switch the leashes often.

A huge success today is that they both complied with my request to get rid of that NASTY thing in their mouths. Bailey is very good about spitting things out when I ask her to. I usually have to decide if it's worth it to wrestle Buzz for the object or just let him consume it. I can't honestly say I've worked on this behavior but he dropped a bone tonight when I cued it! Bailey also dropped a squirrel carcass she discovered at nearly the same time. I was shocked and they were both paid quite well for dropping the nasty things they'd found!

I still need to get into the Kong filling and teeth brushing habits for them but right now, walking seems to be the most important. And so we walk! I could do without the wet though, oh boy could I do without the wet!

Hopefully I'll have time to get to Battle Creek again this weekend. Both dogs seemed to love it there and I certainly love it there!

(Apparently our music isn't working right now... oh well!)

Sticky Nose Target

Bailey has a sticky chin target. It's a very strong behavior and I use it multiple times per week. It is incredibly useful and I'm so happy I taught it.

Buzz had a "lick-bop-slurp-bop-???" behavior from when I attempted to teach a sticky nose (yes-nose, not-chin) target. I took video of trying to "clean it up" without any kind of definitive marker. I am amazed at how people can train without a marker! I got some really nice solid nose touches but they were rarely repeated because of the lag time between behavior and reward. It was entertaining and ridiculous!


I did a session with him tonight using the light as a marker again. I got a lot of the same crazy not-desirable behaviors but I also got a lot of really nice nose touches with duration. He was clearly getting the point!

And this is the most recent session tonight (#3 overall).


A few more sessions and I'll have a real sticky nose target behavior!

Relaxation Protocol-Day 1 (kitchen)

This is what Bailey and I did tonight.

Sit for 5 seconds

Sit for 10 seconds

Sit while you take 1 step back and return

Sit while you take 2 steps back and return

Sit for 10 seconds

Sit while you take 1 step to the right and return

Sit while you take 1 step to the left and return

Sit for 10 seconds

Sit while you take 2 steps back and return

Sit while you take 2 steps to the right and return

Sit for 15 seconds

Sit while you take 2 steps to the left and return

Sit while you clap your hands softly once

Sit while you take 3 steps back and return

Sit while you count out loud to 10

Sit while you clap your hands softly once

Sit while you count out loud to 20

Sit while you take 3 steps to the right and return

Sit while you clap your hands softly twice

Sit for 3 seconds

Sit for 5 seconds

Sit while you take 1 step back and return

Sit for 3 seconds

Sit for 10 seconds

Sit for 5 seconds

Sit for 3 seconds

At least, I hope that's what we did... I'm still not sure if I'm doing it right!

We also worked on "It's your choice" with a few modifications.

Surprisingly, it wasn't too incredibly boring the first night. Motivation, I have it!

Contentment

content  (kənˈtɛnt)
— adj
1.	mentally or emotionally satisfied with things as they are

Tonight, the dogs are content. In fact, all dogs in the house appear to be content.

I took my dogs to the "park" near our house we've recently discovered. It's not a dog park, it's not completely fenced in, and we're probably breaking some law by having the dogs drag leashes, but it provided the dogs with an opportunity to stretch their legs! Bailey was SO happy to run around while we played recall games and she was incredibly responsive to her sticky target/recall cue nose touch. As soon as she saw my hand, she was on the move back toward me!

And Buzz was mighty responsive today as well. I was pretty proud of the elderly boy! We definitely need to find a real dog park and use it at the odd hours, but for now... this will work!

We're now all hanging out on the couch watching CSI waiting for dinner to be ready.

Content dogs make me content.

Reactive Dog Class/THE BIG MOVE

On January 2, 2012, the dogs and I moved to a house in Saint Paul, MN. Since that day, we've been doing our best to keep on going about life as it was before!

In an effort to help us all adjust better, I signed Bailey and I up for Reactive Dog Class. This is only the second type of class she's ever taken in her almost 12 years of life! (The reason for that is worth at least another blog post...)

I keep telling myself "I'm going to be a good student, that's the only way she'll get better and we'll make any progress, right?!" Truth be told, I've not been a very good student so far. I am still walking the dogs together in the morning and often-times in the afternoon as well. Before I can walk them separately, I need to work on each one being left in the bedroom while I take the other out without protest barking. I haven't found a way to safely feed out of a food toy yet (we live with another dog, Bailey guards ALL THE FOOD THINGS and things related to her crate) so they've only had a trachea one day and a frozen kong another. Kibble has been served in bowls like a bad owner! However, I AM carrying treats with me EVERYWHERE. I'm reinforcing our canine housemate for lots of appreciated behaviors, I'm reinforcing my dogs for good leash walking, responding to cues in a timely manner, and the three of them practice eating treats in an orderly fashion. A goal of mine and of the class is to be out working the dogs in public, under thresh-hold at least a couple times a week. Last night the dogs went for a car ride. I never took them out of the car so I suppose that outing doesn't count. However, tonight we went on a real outing!

Lauren and I took the dogs to Urbanimal to explore and walked around outside the store a bit. Bailey and I worked on loose leash walking, our "there's another dog" retreat (cue is a rear end tap), and sit/relax in new environments. The Saint Paul Urbanimal is TINY and there's a dog daycare attached so we didn't stay long as there were DOGS in close proximity and she still managed to keep her brain about her and work under thresh-hold. Chuck and Don's was the next stop on the list! While there she willingly worked on sit/relax in a corner of the store with very few distractions. My rate of reinforcement was high but we accomplished the task.

Tomorrow we will find a place to RUN as I know that physical exercise will help us out. My poor Bailey was used to running off leash 2-3 times a day for 10-30 minutes at a time before we moved. Now she gets some yard time, leash walk time, and sometimes we even go on a field trip. She's severely lacking in the physical activity department!

I even brushed their teeth tonight! We're getting back on track and establishing a new routine.

City Musings

Bailey wore her thundershirt at Crystal's last night. I set up her crate, put her blanket, dinner, and trachea-chew in there. She never made a peep. She was crated in an unfamiliar room behind a closed door, at the other end of the house from where the people were. The only outburst/reaction we had was while packing up to leave. I didn't close the door to the room completely and as Bailey was exiting her crate Maisy walked in. Bailey backed up into her crate, just so she could guard it, from the inside! It was some noise and lunging from within, then Maisy left the room and we carried on as if nothing had happened.

This morning, I asked her for left side loose leash walking (a behavior that's far from fluent I realized) and removed her thundershirt before going on said walk. She was hypervigilent for most of the walk until I put her on my right side. She calmed visibly and walked alongside me with variable reinforcement. When I asked for left side, my rate of reinforcement was every 2-3 steps (incredibly high, and I was still getting frequent hits to the end of the leash) but on the right side it was every 10-15 (with appropriate response to the infrequent tight leashes that occured). That's a huge difference! She also reorients more frequently while on my right side I noticed.

We saw other dogs and squirrels while out walking. She never lunged or vocalized but I saw her rise up on her tippy toes and she started taking food like a shark until we were passed them.

My dog is still reactive, and always will be.
I found areas of our training that need work.
I should probably time the putting on/taking off of her thundershirt better!
Higher value reinforcers will help me succeed faster (I had kibble).

When we got back to the house, I let her loose in the (fenced) backyard. She took the opportunity to explore and investigate but I didn't see any classical signs of "de-stressing" after a stressful event. I think that's a good thing, too!

Calling Dogs Off

I had a discussion with a friend the other day. His dogs are hunt-test trained (or in training) retrievers. Despite our differences regarding training methods and choice of dog sport, we have discussions about end-result-behaviors pretty successfully. Most recently, he gave me some wonderful advice on Bailey's directed retrieve problem using a common hunt-test drill. I applied it a bit differently than he'd advised, but the basis was the same.

One of our last discussions has still got me a bit confused though. The topic was calling dogs off a chase.

I said I can call Bailey off chasing live animals. She used to run the 80 acre farm at whim and thus had zero impulse control, because I'd never asked her for it. My friend looked at me like I had twelve eyes and said "of course you should be able to call your dogs off a chase." When I began working on the call off, I was new to clicker training and still had that knee-jerk collar correction habit. Bailey and I weren't communicating very effectively, but I'll be darned if I was going to give up and use any kind of physical pressure to get this end result!

I happened upon a post by someone on the original SitStay forum (the cause of my online dog community obsession) suggesting the use of a whistle as my recall cue, because it's not something the dog hears daily and can be loud enough to break through to the brain when a dog is focused on chasing. I don't remember all the details of my training plan (and I'm sure it changed almost daily) but in the end, I could call her off prey (with a whistle) when she gave chase. She also developed impulse control to the point where she was able to see a running animal and NOT give chase.

I never used an e-collar on her. I never attached a long line so she would hit the end and "learn her lesson." I never (intentionally) set her up to fail.

So why shouldn't I have been ecstatic I achieved this end result without inflicting pain? Apparently this is impossible without using force. I don't know about you, but I do know that at least one person has trained his dogs to do far more amazing things without the use of force and pain.

Play

The photos below were part of this discussion. I can see bad play, I can even see poor play sometimes, but I get very confused when trying to evaluate play from dogs without previous 'good play history.'

Amber is a submissive, under-confident Labrador Retriever puppy. She's resilient but very soft. She's got good dog-dog skills and responds well to cues from others. As a puppy, she interacted with other Retrievers near daily. She learned some good and poor play habits there.

Frodo is a dog-reactive, middle-aged Pembroke Welsh Corgi. (If he were my dog, I would do a better job of labeling and describing him here.) He was also attacked by another dog while on a walk with his owner a week ago. He doesn't typically like other dogs and gets very few chances to play with others (as his owner's friends' dogs aren't ideal candidates either).

As Kristen and I discussed, "the play was not good, but it was very impressive" for Frodo.

I think Amber was relieved that another dog actually interacted with her at my house! My two usually ignore her completely.

Next time I'll remember to take video when I want to discuss play, Kristen!

Silly Photos

House Guest #1

We have our "regular" Labrador Retriever house guest over thanksgiving. She just turned a year old and she's still as cute and silly as ever!

(It's a darn good thing she loves Kongs. I was prepared and stuffed ALL the Kongs!)

She just found the (empty) tug a jug and brought it out into the living room. She learned about food toys the first time she stayed here and doesn't seem to have forgotten! There are far worse things for her to be looking for!

Happy Dogs

I have happy dogs tonight. It certainly isn't due to exercise (as they barely got walked today), it's not because their brains are tired (I trained absolutely nothing today), so what's left?!

CHEWIES!

There are days I say life without chewies is a sad life indeed! Bailey and I had to return some car parts near the pet food store in town today. Of course this means we had to stop in at the store and of course that means she got to pick something out. I may have influenced her decision a little but I don't think she was upset.

Beef Tracheas!
(Or Moo Tubes)
(Or Windies)

I really need to place a stock up order rather than buying them one at a time! I'd save so much money (in theory...)!

But for tonight, I have happy dogs!

Stress

I don't post over half of the pictures I take because the subject appears stressed.

Those are her 'please don't pet me' ears.

I refrain from commenting on pictures and videos where the subject (typically a dog) is showing signs of stress.

I wonder if the person posting these things notices and doesn't care, or doesn't even know what the signs of stress are.

Stryker's head is low, her eyes are darting, and she's lip licking.

Stress happens, I realize that. As my good friend Elizabeth says (and I'm paraphrasing because I don't typically record our conversations) "if my dog can deal with this level of stress and continue to work, then I'm okay with it. However, if my dog shuts down, then it's too much."

 

Stryker is eating food. Bailey is avoiding eye contact and turning away.

We strive to make the lives of our dogs as stress free as possible, right? If not, we should!

Stressed dog pictures make me uncomfortable and most are deleted when I sort through the first time. Our good friend Crystal explains stress well if you search for body language or stress.

So, to all the forumers and bloggers out here; this is the reason why I rarely comment on pictures. I can't bring myself to say something nice about sharing a picture of a clearly stressed dog. 

Here's more pictures of stressed dogs, without caption. Do you know why I consider the dog stressed?

If you can identify this adorable baby-dog... you win a prize!

Buzz and I

Buzz and I went for a walk this afternoon. Just the two of us. While he was gone last week, Bailey and I had a lot of one-on-one outings, just by default. In the dead of winter I usually wimp out and take both dogs walking together since we have to pack up and drive somewhere. Today I took advantage of the opportunity to hike, just the two of us.

We visited one of our usual winter stomping grounds complete with a coffee shop that allows dogs! Buzz had a grand old time and I snapped a couple pictures of him with my phone. I enjoy posing him on things and he doesn't seem to mind, so that's usually what I end up with.

We were out for at least an hour and a half so by the end he was a little tired, but I'd say he's still doing pretty darn well for being 13.5 years old!

Interesting Comments

Bailey and I traveled into the city again yesterday. I had a few things to take care of so she stayed in the car for a bit, when I was done I found a coffee shop with wifi so I could get some internetting (yes, it's totally a verb) accomplished. That coffee shop was smack dab in the middle of a shopping center. I figured "what better place to train my dog at?!"

When I got her out of the car, and got her gear on, she wasn't very interested in working. We've encountered this problem before, many, many times. This is where I've established a checklist with follow through.

1. I check to make sure my treats are high value (zukes salmon, she only gets them when working in public)
2. I check to make sure there aren't other dogs around (these can cause her to become stressed even when she was previously working well)
3. I check my mental functioning level: Am I giving her my full attention?

If all of those are 'checkable' then we take a short break and I ask her to work again. Stationary behaviors have never been her strongest so I always ask for LLW first. I had to use a high rate of reinforcement as well as directional changes, but she did start working. The key with this is that when she does begin to work I reward heavily and then only work for a short while. Her release to go sniff seems to be a bigger reward in situations like this. We walked the length of the complex before she was reliably working for an extended period of time. On our second pass she was giving me wonderful heeling past people, complete with beautiful pivots. She even responded to cues for sit and down readily.

Along the way, we stopped to greet a couple people and got some very interesting comments!

As we heeled towards an elderly lady, she motioned for me to stop. She said she'd been watching us and was so impressed (why, thank you) but then proceeded to tell me that she has "a little Pomeranian and then got a big black and white dog that would have eaten the Pom if they hadn't trained it not to. It just happens with that breed." I curiously asked her what breed the big black and white dog is, she wasn't sure; just that it would have eaten the little one without training!

Another was from what appeared to be a mother and her son who were pushing groceries down the walkway. The mother asked if she could pet Bailey, to which I replied sure. Bailey wasn't so interested in being pet so she sat and faced me. This lady then asked Bailey to sit. Bailey didn't respond. She asked again. Bailey didn't respond. Rather than let the lady get frustrated, I cued sit with a signal. Bailey sat and the lady says "I knew you could do it! Now, can you shake?!" I just said no...

A third interaction involved two young men. They had watched her pivot while heeling so one says "hey, my dog can do that!" Before I can say anything, his friend bursts out laughing and is laughing so hard he can barely breathe. Then they just kept on walking, so I did too!

I've been good about working her in completely new places where I would have left her in the car previously! Training DOES work, I guess!

taking my dog for granted

Bailey's a really easy dog to live with, for the most part. I can take her pretty much anywhere (heck, she travels everywhere with me lately and I don't stress about it, neither does she) and she's able to chill out and relax. She's also quite easily motivated for training, and always has been. I didn't (and still don't) have to put forth a ton of effort to reward her. She has a lot of behaviors, some are on cue, some are offered, and a select few are on stimulus control. I definitely take her for granted.

I have worked with her and taught her many behaviors in the last couple years, even if we act like I haven't sometimes. Most of the time I just forget the cue I put it on (Robin, I promise I'm trying to be better about that!) so I wait for it to be offered, heavily reinforce, then wait for it to be offered again. Not very effective training, I know!

The point of this post is that a couple friends and I got together to watch a Silvia Trkman video on Tuesday night. Part of the video was teaching heeling and part of teaching heeling is pivoting. Bailey has pretty heeling, she has better-than-decent pivoting (thanks to Kristen VanNess for helping me teach that a couple years ago), and she's quite animated while doing it! I definitely got some good (new) information from the video, but it also made me train my dog a little bit (practicing already competent behaviors is still training). It also made me realize how much I really take my dog for granted. She's quite a talented little dog, if I remember how to cue her!



Now... should I go teach something new, or work on older behaviors that still aren't on cue? :-)

adventures of an "only dog"

My mom had surgery on her neck last Wednesday. In order to make life easier right now, Buzz's most favorite Auntie Elizabeth is watching him while we get through the first week post surgery.

Buzz Photo Fail

This is because I'm having to take all potentially-annoying beasts with me or confine them while I'm gone during the day. While I can bring both dogs to work and crate them while I work, Buzz is pretty sure that's some kind of inhumane dog treatment. Every time I bring him to work he BARKS and WHINES and is generally a VERY UNHAPPY dog. It makes me sad. If I try to take Buzz to work more than 2 days in a row he hides when I get his car gear out.

However, Bailey is quite good at this whole hang out at work thing. She comes to work with me sometimes even when she doesn't have to. She has "her" crate at work in a location that's pretty uneventful and she mostly naps while I work, comes out at lunch, and naps while I work some more.

Bailey Photo Fail

Unnecessary back-story? Probably.

Bailey's pretty sure this only dog stuff is AWESOMESAUCE. She goes everywhere with me. We stayed at Tim's Friday and Saturday night. She's got this city-dog-life figured out. We travel in the car a lot. Every time I leave the house she goes with me.

I fear for her reality check when she doesn't go everywhere with me. For now though, she's having a blast.

(I need to get out and take pictures with my own dogs again, after they've been groomed... which will happen. Someday, soon?)

Photos

Country Dog

Grey Dog

Happy Dog

Swamp Dog

Training Tuesday

With the puppy gone, I have MUCH MORE TIME to dedicate to training my own dogs again.

Sure, they're elderly. Nope, they're not going to be competing seriously. Of course they still love to train!

Tonight Bailey worked on some hat box sits, pivots, and dumbell retrieves (I need to rebuild a much more solid hold with a more defined release). She worked for most of her dinner and the rest was fed out of a food toy.

Buzz worked on bows, backing up, and letting me work on his shoulder. He also worked on being really, really adorable while begging for more food.

I need another Buzz.
His name is Max.

https://www.facebook.com/ESRAUpperMidwest

I would call him Rex.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Toy_Story_characters#Rex