Day 7 -- Goodbyes

It's our last day with Miss Layla Blu so we had to get all our last minute snuggles in while we had our chance.

We worked on generalizing some of her new commands today. When dogs are taught something new they usually don't generalize it, meaning they don't understand that a command means the same thing in a variety of environments. It doesn't take much to teach them that "yes, 'bed' means lay down on this bed too." She picked this us pretty quickly as we practiced on a variety of beds today.

This will help her transition back to home too. She may need reminders but because she has practiced in different environments with different beds it will make it much easier for her.

So the girl who follows her nose is heading home...

And she will really be missed by all. One thing is for sure, she will definitely go home a tired girl. She's worked hard and she's played hard this week...she's probably ready for a vacation.

Day 6 -- Progress

It's hard to admit but it's almost been a week. We don't really want to admit that our time is almost up because we have so enjoyed having Miss Layla Blu around. Perhaps if we closed our eyes the end won't come...

Layla has been playing really well with the other dogs.

It's normal for dogs to use their mouths in play as long as they are inhibiting their bite and just lightly mouthing each other. Layla will sometimes get a little too vocal in her play but I just interrupt her in a nice easy tone by walking towards her and saying "too much." This is a good way to test out your leadership skills too. Does she respond when you quietly ask her to stop? She should. If she doesn't, it might be time to look at your relationship with her and see where you might need to make some adjustments so she's looking to you for leadership.

She is still consistently coming when called...even in the middle of playing with her friends. We're still having to work a little bit to get her to come faster but she's improving!

She's doing really well with name recognition and paying attention in moderately distracting environments.

But for new, exciting things she still struggles a bit with her attention. You can get her attention but it takes a little bit of work. More exposure and practice in distracting environments will help with this. Getting distance away from the distraction and rewarding more frequently and with higher value treats  for attention will help. Those darn kitties are hard to pass up...

She's doing really well with getting in her crate when asked to do so. She's getting lots of different, exciting activities to do in her crate and she looks forward to this time. Daily practice of being alone for short periods of time has almost extinguished any whining she was doing in the kennel when I left. Now she happily goes into her kennel and gets to work on her toy/chew/treat.

She's doing pretty well with going to her bed. She will do so when I ask (sometimes she needs a reminder to lay all the way down). She's working on her stay on the bed and will probably need a nice chew treat or toy to help her build up some duration on the bed.

Layla's doing well with alerting me to her mealtimes. She is poking my hand with her nose when it's time for meals and we're working on getting that poke a little more persistent. She'll need to continue to practice this at home with her regular schedule at home so she starts to get use to those time periods. It might be helpful, in the beginning, to set timers so you are consistent while she learns the schedule. This one pays off big for her...she LOVES her meals!

Day 5 -- Entertainment

So what is a girl to do when she doesn't have all her friends living in the same house? There are going to be times when the activity level around the house is not this high but Layla still has to get her needs met.

I like to use stuffed Kongs to entertain dogs, especially in a crate. You don't have to do anything fancy. There are all sorts of ideas for what to stuff a Kong with. It might just be a small swipe of peanut butter. I like to mix some of a dog's meal with a little bit of plain yogurt, stuff the Kong and then freeze it. This gives the dog something to work on for a while in the crate and helps relieve some excess energy. Kayla LOVES the stuffed Kongs and gets really excited to get in her crate.

There are a lot of different interactive toys on the market that will help a dog entertain herself (or interact with you if desired).

I like to save interactive toys like these for specific times, like when a dog goes in her crate or while a dog is resting on her bed while I'm eating.

We explored these toys while we were at the store today. When Layla rides in my car she rides in the crate. She's eager to jump right in and seems quite comfortable riding there.

It did not take us nearly as long to get adjusted to the store today. She was still distracted but it was much easier to get her attention. We made it all the way into the store today!

She got a chance to practice some nice, polite greetings with strangers. Meeting new people, going to new places, and meeting new dogs is all important to her socialization. More exposure to things like this will also give her more opportunities to work on her distractibility.

because there are definitely things out there that are still distracting Layla. But she's getting better!

Layla was worn out after our big day. Maybe she's dreaming of what tomorrow will bring...

Day 4 -- Here Comes the Sun!

What's that you say, Layla? You're not sure what that big, bright thing in the sky might be? Finally, it's sunshine and we couldn't be happier.

It's a perfect day to play with our friends and get a lot of training done. Training outdoors can be so much more challenging because of all the distractions and we are up for the challenge!

Layla's recall (coming when called) is coming along nicely. I'm getting a consistent response from her when I call her to come and we've built up her recall to the point where she will come when she's playing with her friends. When she is playing and I call her to come, I'm sure to release her to go play again as part of the reward. I want her to think that recalls are really fun and exciting. If I call her to come and end her play session, she's going to start to associate those recalls with things she's doesn't necessarily enjoy.

As she is running towards me I am encouraging her the entire way. "Good girl!" "That's it!" "You've got it!" I want her to really know she's doing the right thing and I want to make it exciting for her to come to me.

She does a great job working her way past her friends to get to me and once she does get to me, I give her a tiny piece of a tasty treat one right after the other for about 30 seconds while I'm praising her. I want her to know how much it pays off to come to me even when exciting things are happening and I want her to stick with me when I call her (instead of grabbing a treat and running back to her friends). Nice job Layla! Right now I'm just trying to get a little more speed in her return to me but, other than that, she is pretty consistently following through with her recalls.

And what else do you do after a long day of work and play? It's always nice to have friends to snuggle up with.

Day 3 -- Out and About

Layla's attention has been great at home. She's doing really well responding to her name and she will hold her attention for quite a while. Home is easy.

Even when all your friends are around...if they are friends you are use to seeing every day. Layla has been here for three days now so her new found friends are slightly less exciting than they were on day one. It's a great time to practice her attention is a moderately distracting environment. We started out in a quiet room with no one around and now we're working in a comfortable environment but with familiar distractions.

It's a whole different ball game when we go into a new environment. Even with no other animals around and no people nearby, being on the sidewalk outside some local stores proved to be very distracting.

Before we went into a store, we needed to be sure to take care of a couple of things first. Some dogs do not like to go to the bathroom on leash or in new places so it can be challenging. You don't ever want to take a dog into a store without making sure they relieve themselves. But Layla is a champ and went to the bathroom when I asked her to. It makes going into a store so much less stressful when you don't have to worry about accidents.

The next thing we did was stay in a quiet area on the sidewalk and worked on attention. I was armed with high value treats (string cheese, jerky, duck, etc.) to make sure I could reward her with something of interest to her. Sometimes, in distracting environments, what once was a favorite treat is now of no interest at all so I have a variety in case something doesn't work. She was pretty distracted so we spent a lot of time on the sidewalk working through this. I don't move towards the store until I'm getting pretty good attention from her pretty consistently. We only spent a short time in the store by the door. She was pretty distracted. I can tell we're going to need to practice this quite a bit more.

Going into public places can be very stressful on a dog so we are sure to make time for some stress relief when we get back home. We were very grateful for just a little bit of dry weather this afternoon. Makes for a very fun afternoon!

Little Miss Layla Blu is working hard and definitely melting hearts...

Day 2 -- Off and Running

Layla is off to a great start with her attention work! She's really responsive when I call her and she pays attention to me when we are working. I also really like how well she is checking in with me throughout the day. What a good girl...

She's been working on her leash skills. I like to use a shorter leash (about 3 feet long) and even at that, I don't usually use the whole leash. Giving her a lot of leash allows her to "self-reward" meaning that she can reward herself by getting to things she wants (i.e. something to sniff, another dog, a person, etc.). I don't want the leash to be tight so I make sure there is a nice "J" in the leash where the clasp hangs down loose but she doesn't have a lot of extra leash. I can give her more leash when needed (like when I am rewarding her by letting her sniff or if she's needs to go to the bathroom). I also like the leash to be really comfortable in my hand. Some people like nylon leashes but I find them to be uncomfortable in my hand. The leash in the photo is made out of recycled climbing rope and it's very comfortable to hold.

Layla is also learning to go to her bed. Right now she's just learning how to go to her bed when I ask her to. When she gets really good at that, we'll add a "stay" into her "bed" command.

It helps that she likes to lay on the bed on her own time. It makes it much easier to teach. Here she is getting in one last snuggle before Kravitz goes back to his service dog training.

She's also learning to go into her kennel when asked.

She gets big rewards when she offers the behavior and goes into the crate on her own.

She's been very playful here. She loves to play with the toys, the other dogs and the human. Sometimes she starts to guard her toys a little bit from the other dogs (dart away with a toy, protect the toy with a little growl, etc.). When she does this, I say "ah ah" and remove the toy from play. When she is playing really nice with the other dogs, I give her lots of praise.

We definitely want to encourage more of her nicely sharing her toys or, if it's a toy she has a hard time sharing, it's a good idea to give it to her when there aren't other dogs around so she doesn't feel like she needs to protect it.

All in all she's doing really well! We're just hoping for clear skies in the next few days!!

Day 1 -- New Beginnings

Layla's first day at Board & Train and she's fitting in like a champ! It didn't take her long to get all settled in and figure out the essentials like where the back door is located so she can go outside to use the bathroom.

I first gave Layla some time to explore around the house by herself. When she started to look pretty comfortable, I started introducing my dogs one by one. She did great with the little puppy, Rhett. She's very playful with other dogs but she does a lot of very appropriate body signals that let the other dogs know she' ready to play.

It look very little time before she was playing with everyone and having a grand time! She and Kravitz are getting along really well.

Play is a really important component of a dogs' life. It helps them burn off energy, it helps keep their focus, and it provides an excellent opportunity for training. Part of how I build a really solid recall (coming when called) is rewarding a dog for randomly checking in with me. I have been working with Layla on name recognition and attention throughout the day so she's already keyed into me. So anytime she comes up to check in with me, I give her praise and give her a treat. It's a pretty big deal when a dog stops playing with other dogs and checks in with their humans.

I've started to teach Layla "touch" which is the beginning of an alert (her way of telling people when something is needed). I'll eventually move this "touch" to a poke on the leg.

We practice a lot right before mealtime so she starts to get the idea that she needs to let people know when it's time to eat.

We worked on a lot of things today and it was exhausting. But it's so nice to have friends to curl up with.