Doggie Disneyland

While the humans headed off to Disneyland, Indigo and Porter headed off to their respective versions.

Making himself right at home with Kylie

Indi's Doggie Disneyland consists of long hikes through the trails, digging up gopher holes, snuggling on down comforters, and of course humping Theo's head. She always has such a good time to Jennie's house that she doesn't even notice I'm not there. It helps that Jennie allows her to sleep in her bed under the covers just like she does at home. She doesn't even complain about that cold, wet nose of Indi's that can be quite alarming in the middle of the night when placed in the wrong location.

It's raining, why can't we go outside?!

Porter spent time with his spotted dynamic duo friends, Kylie and Daisy. His version of Doggie Disneyland includes running amok in the yard (the muddier the better) and yanking off pieces of the palm trees.

Yum!

I'm not sure if it's just a factor of his age or the fact that I left him, but Porter was really distracted in his obedience class and agility lesson the week we returned. The good news is that he's back on track. Last week he was on fire in all of his classes and did really well at our conformation practice group.

Waiting for my return

A week or so ago we went to visit Madeline's new puppy, Super Ted. I was a bit worried since Ted was only 9 weeks old and Porter is over 60 pounds and doesn't know his own strength. Porter impressed me and did not smash the puppy :)

The last two weeks Porter has not had issues sticking to my side in agility. Instead he has been taking two obstacles just fine. I don't know if he's over it yet or just temporarily, but it's been nice not having that problem.

I was amazed Porter wasn't obsessed with Ted every second.

His sniffing is still a problem when we first arrive on a new location. This week I got to class early and walked him around a bit and let him sniff his heart out. A few times I asked for something simple, like a hand target, and allowed him to go sniff more as his reward. While waiting out turn I took him off to the sides and let him sniff. He was very focused but I can't tell if it is because he was allowed to sniff on the down times and before class or something else.

Since you don't get a lot of attention in a group class we have also done a few private sessions with other trainers. Today we saw someone new and she didn't want Porter sniffing at all. So we worked on his attention and focus on me the instant he came out of his crate. He did well with the things we did today but I had to be on him constantly (treating him before he had a chance to do anything else). If not, he lost his focus and his nose was to the ground. Was this because he wasn't given any chance to sniff or because it was a brand new location (with an intact male and female and puppies on the property)? Hard to say. I'll have to play around with these two ideas and see what I get.

Did you find something good?

I really liked the foundation work this new trainer does. I also liked how efficient she was with the time we had. We talked about a lot of things and did several exercises. I have a lot I can practice on at home with the work we did today. It was time well spent. We are not 100% in agreement with things, but when does that ever happen?

Since Porter and I have been doing K9 Nose Work it's likely that his sniffing is getting worse, for now, but I am confident, based on others experience, that it will get better soon. Allowing him that sniffing outlet while doing Nose Work prevent sniffing from becoming the forbidden fruit and will give him an outlet for that natural and rewarding behavior.

After our lesson we headed to Porter's breeder's house to practice conformation stuff. Porter was tired, hot, and stuffed full of food from agility so his was a bit slow and distracted. Candy thought we did well so that is encouraging since he is usually much better. I think I've decided on which show lead to use (a client lent me several). I still need to go buy my outfit, ugh.

Porter found a big stick and was in Heaven