Life With a Puppy

Under my porch is a mud hole. It never gets any sun, so it never dries out. Added to the torrential amount of rain we have had over the last two months I am glad all my dogs are larger or I might lose one in the mud pit under there. Especially since Aradia, my old hound dog, likes to go under there when she is outside.

I gave up on mopping during the continuous rain because it never helped. Which explains my floor in some of these pictures of Vivre. The yard has finally dried out so the mop came out today. The dogs go out, the dogs come in no problem. Until Aradia, Once I saw the paw prints she was leaving I rushed to get a towel. I was going to clean up her feet and then wipe the floor. I hate to clean, and I don't want to do it any more often than necessary. As I hit the floor and grab for her feet to clean then the towel is ripped out of my hands. I'm sure you can guess who the culprit was. I wiped off Aradia's feet and cleaned the floor with a puppy hanging off the towel the entire time. Yes, she has a good out and I could have used it, but it seemed like it was going to be just way too much temptation and too much to ask her to ignore the towel.

We started a new behavior tonight. Paw targeting. I was clicking her for putting one front paw on a pillow. I find that it is an easier behavior to teach if you start with a change in texture so the dog can feel the target under their feet.

We also started heeling yesterday. All though at this point it is more left side walking. I click for her being in a certain area then reward with a tug. She is doing pretty well for two sessions. There is a video I am thinking about getting that teaches heel differently. I think they teach them to stand in heel first while keeping their paws on a target and spinning in heel. I was going to teach heel stationary first, but that would require Vivre being stationary. :-) But if she is focused on keeping her feet on the target that might help. Which is the reason we started the paw targeting today.

I have heard that dogs tend to be either right or left pawed. With one training session so far Vivre seems to be left pawed. I wonder if that will stay true or if she will switch.