The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me.

Took a week break from the VIEWS.   As far as I know, only one person noticed!!!  Well that sure is indicative.  THANK YOU RUTHY.  I miss you.

MaraBella is back in obedience school at Golden Grange Kennels and the training is going going going.  I feel like we are always taking 3 steps forward and one back back back.  Literally, as we are working on heeling and back is actually a command to get her into the healing start position.  With treats visible, she can go quite a few paces.  Squirrels, cats, of course other dogs, people and even birds and planes distract her.  Yesterday we had to walk past a fox who was quite a distance away but still an attraction.  Today we walked down a path, with horse and geese in the pasture on one side and 4 deer in the field on the other.  She was so engrossed in the geese, that I don't think she even noticed the deer, following us with their eyes in the early morning light of this beautiful day.

Still she is characteristically sweet!  Aaron adores her and enjoys a good tug game as much as MaraBella.  I know this because he brought her a new toy so they could play. 

 

She LOVES it!

 

Photo taken with iPhone. 

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me

Hard to believe MaraBella has only been with us for 3 short months.  She is really part of the family now. Lying next to me she is giving off little yips, woofs and yaps in her sleep.  She cracks me up.   Her adjustment has been amazing, although not without glitches....needless to say she still needs lots of work, as do I.  This morning I took her for a long walk with little bits of hotdogs in my pocket.  I wanted to bring her to the vets office for no other reason then to get her in the door without having to drag her as I did that very first time.  Plus, I was out of dog treats and thought I might pick some up.  Dang it!  I still had to drag her and she was so anxious she wouldn't even take the hotdogs.
The kind folks at the Washington Crossing Animal Hospital did what they could to comfort her and she did warm up to them and enjoyed their stroking her.

Our experience at the Golden Grange Kennels in Chesterfield has been wonderful and I am really sad that Obedience II is on Wednesday nights at 8:30.  That means Furman, who wakes at 4am, wont go and I wouldn't get home until after 10pm.  Going to have to look for something else because I really want to keep up with her training.  IT HAS MADE A TREMONDOUS DIFFERENCE.  MaraBella is one smart dog and I need the classes to remain smarter.

The Foils, Foibles, and Follies of MaraBella and Me

There seem to be two distinct types of obedience training.  Alpha Dog and Positive Reinforcement, otherwise known to me as treat training.  At Golden Grange Kennel, where all three of us go for lessons in obedience the philosophy is positive.   I have little morsels of tasty training treats that MaraBella can gobble up hardly breaking stride when we walk.  With her front clip harness on, the treat reinforcement and the occasional tug reminder to "leave it" or "lets go",  her pulling has decreased dramatically as we walk.  I keep a handful of treats in my pocket so I can quickly reward her good behavior.  Our  morning walk  is at a clip and we do about 2 miles.  I have lost 8 pounds since she arrived.  So I wasn't that upset when this happened.

Chewed right through the pocket, lining and seat.

I figure I have to take most of the responsibility for leaving those little morsels in a pocket that she was able to reach after stripping for the shower and hopping in, giving her just enough time to get  naughty.  After all, the pants were size 12 and falling off anyway.