Tiny spaces

Work has ramped up lately, so not a lot of dedicated training going on. We are continuing to really reinforce sit and a hand target... and putting most of our focus on life skills like crate training, house training, and learning to tolerate car rides and crowds.

Sit and hand targeting are getting to be nice and snappy. Really fun. I have no complaints here.

For the house training regression that we had-- Alfie was peeing in his crate bedding; then he discovered he could pee through the gate of the crate and not have to sit in his pee. We started really focusing on good old fashioned house training... not the newspaper rubbing noses in it kind, but the throw a treat party when it happens outside kind. Plus an herb that promotes emptying his bladder.

And it seems to be working well so far.

Along with that, we addressed the part of that issue that included this boy not liking the crate. We did buy a wire crate a located it in the same room with his buddies where we play Through a Dog's Ear discs when we are gone.

I went back to dedicated crate training, planting treats in the crate when he wasn't looking and rewarding him for investigating the crate. We also had some kong time in there. He would try to remove the kong, but I just put it back in the crate. The door stayed ajar the whole time, and he happily got the message.

Over the last couple of days, he has been crated in there while we have been gone, and apparently he is doing well. I haven't been the one to crate him, but it sounds like he's going in happily and not peeing in it (knock on wood).

And finally, Alfie had his first longer car ride, over an hour each way, with a stop at a very crowded farmer's market and music festival. He chewed on a bully stick for a while, and watched the world out the window. The people were a bit much for him, but we stayed on the edges and he stayed in a pretty good place.

So overall, I'm happy with the progress. No video, but life is good. We'll get back to the fun stuff soon enough.