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...