A new day brings a fresh start

Thursday morning started with Bogart coming around to see if I was awake at 6:30am. He’s starting to learn the schedule better. Last night one of the girls and myself took our dogs out into the courtyard to play. I had taken Bogart out there twice by himself but he just wandered around sniffing. So Rhino, a white poodle, who was his kennel mate came out with us. They had a blast. This was great since it tuckered Bogart out. He was crashed on the floor while I was crashed on the bed early in the evening. The cute thing I noticed is that he had pulled his blanket out of the kennel and put it in front of his kennel. He then also incorporated a bit of my bed spread that was on the floor to make a nice comfy bed for himself. That is nice since he won’t be kenneled at home. I like kennels but I just don’t have enough room in my apartment for such a big thing.

Once we got going today we were told that our walk would be at 10:15am. Great. Knowing this I could get a bit of email writing done. I was down there ready to go when my trainer arrived back from her first walk. Bogart was a bit distracted when it came to getting into his harness. What we do with the dogs is get them to sit. Then we hold the harness in front of them and in our happy voice say “harness Bogart, Harness.” The theory is that the dog will dive his head through into his harness. I was outside when doing this so there were more distractions but he eventually got in there and I was able to do it up quickly using the side clip.

Off we went. As usual, he is a bit sluggish leaving the immediate area of the school but once we were half a block away he picked up the pace and off we went. He did great this morning. The last two walks he had stopped to sniff a low planter. This time he ignored that, walked me around a pole that I had almost shouldered yesterday and ignored the tattoo shop that he was constantly wanting to go into. He has probably learned from the other dogs that there are way more tattoo shops in Vancouver where he is moving to. 

Another test he passed was when a dog and it’s owner passed right by us and Bogart only turned his head for a second and then kept on motoring ahead. Towards the end of our walk he was very impressive by stopping at two corners where I had forgot to ask him to find the curb. I realize that he is trained to do this but for him to do this without his rookie handler asking him to was pretty cool I thought. I gave him a treat so he might also think it was pretty cool. 

In the afternoon we had a more complicated course set up in the hallway and introduced pedestrian distractions and corrections for if we bump a person. When this happens we are to quietly slap our leg and say “Bogart, be careful.” We have to slap our leg since we are not allowed to slap the person who ran into us for some reason. When Bogart takes me too close to an obstacle in our walks I am to stop him, slap the object and say “Bogart, be careful. Pay attention.” Bogart did really good on this new more challenging obstacle route even with the pedestrian being his former trainer.

At the dinner table I was able to get Bogart to sit and lie down several times without touching him or using the leash correction. (Okay, I will admit that I was eating chicken with my hand and did use that hand in front of his nose while giving the commands … but hey, he did them for me which is pretty darn cool.

Tonight I took Bogart out to play again with rhino. They had a blast. Bogart is the dog who barks and says “come on, lets play. How about you give me that ball Rhino. No, okay, I’ll chase you and bark at you.” .

right now Bogart is laying on my foot as I type this message and he is all flaked out. We were just throwing the ball around in the room. Poodles are funny, they like to dribble their balls before they give them to you.

As I suspected would happen with a good rest and some positive thoughts, I too am feeling much better today. I was happy that we’ve had such a good day and Bogart continues to work better for me as we go out. Even my table mates are commenting on how much better Bogart is being at the dinner table. You have to remember that there is food (which he likes), and all kinds of people and dogs walking by us. I’m perfectly situated at the end of the table where everyone has to pass by. He had other dogs almost walking over him without getting up. Awesome I thought. He is still pulling too much when we heal but I’m noticing this is getting better. He is still pulling his refusing tricks at the stairs but I have been successful in coaxing him down and when he comes his pace is perfect. He is healing perfectly and not pulling on the leash at all. The last two times I found myself without treats so it was just me, using my ability to coax, that got him going. Often, if I let him smell my hand and then pull it away while asking him to come or heal, that often works.

There are some others who are having rough days today so I tried to share how frustrated I was yesterday, yet how impressed and happy today.

Right now, several of the girls have gone out to Second Cup with the trainer who is staying over night. One of the girls dog is constantly barking. This is Byron, Bogart’s brother. The girl who stayed came and knocked on my door to ask me if we should take him out and put him in one of our kennels. But I think he had an accident the last time someone took him into their rooms. Secondly, it is not our dog so we need to leave it be. Sadly for her, she is staying right next door to the barking dog and it is setting her dog off. Being a couple of rooms away, Bogart is totally ignoring his loud brother.

So tomorrow is another day. We are walking in the morning and going to the pet store in the afternoon. This store, Ren’s, gives us a 20% discount so I’ll probably buy a rain coat for Bogart and maybe a toy or two. He’ll need a doggie bed when I get home but I can’t take that on the plane so it will have to wait. I got some good ideas for cheap beds from the trainer which I will look into.