The Good, Bad, and Not-so-ugly

So much has happened in the last few days in the land of Raelyn!

2 days ago Raelyn did not pay any attention to the "Down" command. Today she is doing it like a pro! She still needs to be prompted by pointing at the floor, but she knows what to do. Crazy how fast she picked it up. Just an all of a sudden thing.

She "Waits" so consistently now too. She will patiently wait in either a sit or a down while you turn your back and walk away from her. She will even remain in position when then kitties walk by her! We call her to the next command pretty quickly, so it is a temporary hold. She is still distracted by something shiny, so we will wait on the stay for now which is more of a long term hold position.

She also figured out that "Go to bed' just means to find one of her soft comfy things on the floor and lay on it, so she isn't tied to just her special towel anymore. This is a big step as she originally learned the command on her special towel, but now realizes the command doesn't mean go there, it means go lay on something soft and stay there. Pretty cool!

Our walk today went really well too. Switching to the heavier leather leash has been a HUGE help. She stopped trying to eat the leash and walks a lot better. She is still distracted by most things and doesn't want to pay attention sometimes, but she is improving a ton. At the end of our walk, she was content to sit calmly sit next to me as I stood in the driveway and watch the cars go by. She loved it!

Our big issue that remains is the vocalization. She is super whiny and sometimes barky when she is frustrated/bored/doesn't get what she wants. We will be asking the Guide Dog trainer at our meeting this week what to do about this as correction, ignoring, and flat out denying whatever she wants isn't working.

On a more positive note, we think we may have solved our crate issue! Raelyn has hated the crate with a passion and will whine, dig, figet, and just not settled down well. We thought about it and the bottom of the specific crate we have has 5 large circular lumps, so the bottom isn't flat. Maybe she can't get comfy! DUH! So I put one of her beds in the crate and VOILA she has been sleeping voluntarily in the crate with the door open all afternoon/evening. No whining, figeting, or digging. We will monitor to make sure she doesn't eat her bedding, but wow, what a difference. We also think that she is probably getting bored in the crate, so we are going to buy some more toys. This way she has more to play with/chew. Now that we know what kinds of things she likes, we can try to pick out good things on our next trip to the pet store.

All things considered, things are going smashingly! :)

Sunday Soccer, Take Two

On sunday, we all went to watch Dale play soccer again and we had a blast! Raelyn had excellent manners and met lots of new friends. She didn't try to mouth or jump up on anyone. That's progress from our last outing to the soccer field!

She got REALLY excited when a ball came whizzing by us out of bounds. She wanted to chase after it and the soccer player who followed. She was surprisingly calm and was content most of the time to sit and watch the action. There is hope for her yet!

The secret to walking calmly on leash

We started the sunny weekend off with a bang! Dale and I took Raelyn to the fenced tennis courts at our complex to practice walking on a leash and to just have fun. Raelyn ate up every minute of it! We first worked a little bit on walking and that went decently well. Then we let her off the leash and holy cow she just tore around in circles and would dash back and forth when Dale and I would tell her to Come.

Finally, she had to take a break and pretty much collapsed in the pool of water she spilled from her water bowl. We thought she had enough, but NO she got her second wind and went around tearing up the place again. After that, we practiced walking on a leash again and she walked beautifully! We finally found the secret to making her have good leash manners. Too bad it involves completely tiring her out first which is impractical most of the time...

First Baby Puppy Meeting

Last Friday was Raelyn's first baby puppy meeting. When the puppies are less than 5 months old, we have to take them to meet with a club leader once a week.

She met her friends Roman (a yellow lab a few weeks older than Raelyn who goes poo 8 times a day, unlucky raisers...) and Joyce (a black lab almost 5 months old). Raelyn was very excited to meet everyone and was full of it.

First we practiced walking on a loose leash. Ha! Good luck with that. Raelyn wasn't really interested in participating in the lesson. She was having too much fun not paying attention and trying to play tug of war with her leash. She did well sometimes, but was all over the place the rest of the time. Over the weekend, we switched to using a thicker leather leash and that seemed to help a lot! She didn't chew the leash as much and responded quickly to small collar corrections.

The other thing we worked on at the meeting was the "Go to Bed" command. Because the meeting was at a new house with lots of fun and exciting new smells, the expectation for Raelyn's obedience wasn't too high. However, she got it right away! She ignored the distractions, laid down right on her towel and stayed there. She even came when I called her and then went back to bed. It was so exciting to see her do so well and remember the commands.

To spice it up at home now, we are making her run the gauntlet of much lusted after kitty toys while performing "Go to Bed" and "Come" commands. I line up the kitty toys and she just runs right past them! Sometimes she will stop and sniff, but then quickly remember what she was supposed to do. It is so funny to watch the gears in her head turn.

She is also rapidly learning "Wait". Before she would just go wherever it was she wanted to go, but now we can tell her to "Sit" and then "Wait" and she will sit and wait patiently while you move away from her until you tell her the next command. Pretty cool!

Out and About

On Tuesday, Raelyn had the chance to meet some of Dale's co-workers and observe lots of remote control cars. The event was "Cinco de Drivo" at Dale's work. Everyone is given a small budget to buy a car that they will race through an "extreme" obstacle course. This year the course featured: dry ice, swinging cinder blocks, a giant flame thrower, and flying bricks. It isn't much of a race. It is more about watching awesome mayhem and destruction.

Raelyn did great the whole time. She was very aware and interested in all of the strange noises, but she wasn't nervous or scared about the noisy cars and cheering crowd. She practiced her manners and made lots of new friends. After a while, she gets bored with meeting people so she doesn't get excited and just sits there and doesn't care. She was much more enthralled with trying to eat food off of the ground...

This was also her first trip in a car without being in the crate. She sat quietly on the floor in the backseat. Only once did I look back and have to correct her for lounging comfortably on the seat. Car ride = Nap time for Raelyn, so she is easy to handle and doesn't try to chew the seats.

In other news, Raelyn is consistently "Sitting" and following the "Come" and "Go to Bed" commands even with lots of toy distractions. We just started working on "Wait" and that is going smashingly. She is picking it up well.

Accidents in the house are becoming non-exsistent which is super exciting!

We are continuing to be vigilant about working on good leash behavior and barking/whining. She still likes to pull and eat the leash and whenever really frustrated or excited she vocalizes. Still not a big fan of the crate, but is calming down a bit quicker.

Raelyn + Cupcakes = Great Poster Session

Raelyn came to visit Dominican on friday for my biology research class's poster session where my students showed off the results of their research projects. With the help of cute puppy and cupcakes, attendance was great! :)

Here is a picture of the event: (L to R) Ryan, Nicole, Me with Raelyn, Janan and Winnie

Puppy Personals

10-week old, single female black lab looking for a special someone to snuggle/lick.

A little bit about me:
My name is Raelyn. I'm super smart, quick to pick up new things, great in new situations, lean with long legs, and my friends tell me I'm cute. Just a small warning, I'm VERY high maintenance and bore quickly, so you must provide me with LOTS of stimulation.

I "Sit" when it pleases me. Seriously, who really wants to sit when there are so many fun things to sniff and explore? Although I am getting better and more consistent.

I "Come" on command even if I am playing with a really fun chew toy across the room or if you call me from out of sight. Not to brag, but I learned this new command in about 2 days.

I "Go to bed" enthusiastically which means that I will run quickly to my designated towel and plop myself down into a "Down" position with my chin on the floor. Sometimes toys distract me, but who can ignore a moving object or an exciting kitty? I am proud to say that I stay on my towel even when my live-in raisers (don't feel threatened as they are not my type) walk out of sight. I don't want to gloat, but I learned this in about 3 days.

I like to chew anything I can put into my mouth, however I am learning to control my obsession a bit.

I don't like to be inside a crate, but I am slowly learning to deal with it and complaining less. Because I have a hard time calming down, puppy handling at night is a very soothing activity that melts me like buttah and puts me in the mood to be shoved into my crate (stupid raisers, they just don't understand).

I sleep from about midnight to 7:30am regularly without waking up.

I like to whine when I want attention and bark if I am frustrated or excited. Unfortunately, neither of those things seems to be getting me anywhere so maybe I will quit doing them soon...

I really like to nap in my raiser's lap. Despite not giving me everything I want even when I flash my big brown sad puppy dog eyes, I like them as they are super comfy and warm. Who can complain about that?

I am mostly house-trained. I definitely won't go #2 inside the house, but #1 is still in the works. To my credit, my accidents are few and far between and only happen because my raisers are retarded and don't take me out when they are supposed to. Duh. It isn't rocket science people.

I enjoy being touched all over. I don't think I've met a touch I don't like, but I really love my belly rubbed. Mmmm...heaven.

If you are single and I am your type, please leave a comment and I'll contact you!

Me with my raisers:

photo courtesy of Frankie