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.