Delilah: Training Update

So the other day I signed up for Delilah's next training class!  It's not an agility class yet but it's the one we need before agility.  It will be in March.  We're very excited, Delilah loves classes!

I also ordered the book "Control Unleashed."  It's about helping "dogs with issues" (like Delilah) learn to relax and focus in situations that might stress them out or distract them.  I've only read the beginning so far and the first thing it recommended was teaching a conditioned relaxation.  So I've started working on that with Delilah- just marking and rewarding her whenever she's physically relaxed and calm.  We also worked on "place" using both her bed and a mat.  She loves "place" in her bed!  We're starting out in the house, but hopefully we'll be able to move outside in the next week or two if the weather continues to be nice (it was above 40*F in VT! Crazy!)

Watching me do dishes from her "place."

She's done a couple of things that made me proud in the past week.  The first is that I brought her to Petco (although it was later at night so there weren't many people around) and she didn't yap at all!  She was fairly calm and well behaved (although she REALLY wanted to kill the birds).  I'm going to continue bringing her to pet friendly places on my days off so she can get used to being in different environments and practicing training.

The other thing is that we've left her out of her crate a few times when we've gone out for short periods of time.  I only do it if she's peed and pooped before we leave.  She hasn't had any accidents or destroyed anything!  I peaked in through the window on my way home last night and she was lying in her bed!  Such a good girl!