6:30- wake up call and Donna came and knocked on my door to make sure Inwas up. Love the staff at GDF and that they know me so well.
7:20- Breakfast was scrambled eggs, a sausage patty, and toasted poppyseed bagels. Our last student on class joined us this morning too. Our amazing chef, Kevin, went though the days menu and we all chowed down on our food
8:00- we gathered in the gathering room ifor a review of the day and met Brad Hibbard the Chief Program Officer. He explained that he will be with us out in class for most of this class as we have three apprentice trainers on this class.
8:30- we did the fire drill and went to our designated emergency spots. After everyone was confirmed outside we were released back inside.
9:00- Juno (short handle) walk; This is where the instructor holds a rectangle harness handle with a leash attached and essentially pretends to be the dog to work on proper footwork for turns, following the dog, giving corrections, verbal commands, and giving food rewards. Cristina and I started with how to hold the leash and handle. I actually have been doing something pretty similar to what the new way of holding the leash is so it wasn’t a big change for me. We then went out and worked the square out back. Reviewed my footwork, and this is really important for positioning and to keep the dog from curling around in front of me when I give it’s food reward.
We worked on left turns more as I wasn’t very fluid in those and was kind of choppy. These got much better as I became used to working then with her suggestions. I’m still learning the treating piece too as you need to be diligent to keep the foot position and reward on a sweeping motion across your body like clicking a seat belt. Then treating down at the dogs level by your left thigh. This keeps the dog from coming out of position and curling around in front of you. Cristina said she’s gonna be nit picking me as I’m doing well with the foot work so she will work on fine tuning.
We walked around the square doing right turns, left turns, and around some easy obstacles. Then we worked on pace and I needed her to speed up quite a bit. She had to keep reminding me to keep a consistent pull in the harness handle as all of my dogs have had a very strong pull and it’s not usually been an issue to keep that counter pull as they call it.
We worked back into the building and showed how to roll though the doors which is dropping the harness handle, holding the dog back, opening the door and putting my back to the door and turning toward the direction I am going and calling the dog that direction and guiding it with the leash in that direction.
Cristina dropped me off at my room and said she would be back in about a half hour to do another juno walk and go through corrections and some performance management to keep the skills sharp The trainers are doing two Juno walks with their students to make sure that the dogs they have in mind for their students are the right pull, pace, and are able to handle the personality of the dog too.
Just a few hours and we find out who our dogs are!!! I have a feeling mine is going to be a girl.
10:00- Juno walk 2. Cristina acted like a dog again and we went out to the square where I learned to give a time out and showed how I give corrections. She has started to give me me tips about my dog and said that when we cross the break area to get to the square that if we go too quickly in that spot that my dog will try to blow the curb there, that it likes to work and wants to keep going. We worked around the square again and I gave her commands and praise like she is the dog, and corrections and a time out when she pretended to be distracted. I felt bad as I nearly jerked Cristina off her feet when I stopped for the time out. LOL. We then worked on to the curb with the leash in my right hand. My left turns are still kind of wonky and going to have to really work on those. I think it’s because I hadnt been doing them right or have done a moving left turn so out of practice with them.
We worked out way back inside and to find the door again and Cristina said that when my dog finds and targets the door handle I’m going to feel a really wiggly butt on my dog. So personality hint #2.
She dropped me off at my room and said they will call us down at 11 to the leather lounge and if we don’t get in the leash guiding or heeling work before we go to lunch and get the dogs, we will put he dog in tie down and do that work after we get the dogs.
HALF An Hour!!! CANT WAIT.
11:00- It’s the big moment. Everyone gathers in the lounge and we find out who our dogs are. We are all waiting as the trainers finally come in and gives us the name and breed of each of our dogs. I am receiving a female black lab of which I will call AJ from here on out through the duration of my training. :)
11:30- Media and marketing lecture- Bill and Rebecca from Media Relations come and share the communications policy with us and that we are not to share any information on our classmates or their dogs as well as GDF prefers that you do not share your dog's name until Celebration Saturday in case the partnership possibly does not work out.
12:00- Lunch was a phenomenal veggie soup and roast beef sandwich. We all chatted excitedly as we waited for the time to go back to our rooms.
1:00- we all were back in our rooms and it was the big moment! We put the leash and martingale collar that we had in our rooms on the door handle- for our trainers to take and go get our dogs from the kennels. We waited for the instructor to bring the dogs to our rooms and it is totally like having a new baby each time.
Cristina came and knocked on my door and asked if I was ready. In bounded a very wiggly lab whose but was just wagging from side to side with her tail so petite and small and she came over and walked back and forth soaking up the butt scratches and jumped up and gave me kisses. Bill took photos of our introduction and Cristina said she’s called her a couple of different things including wiggly butt. I will continue to call her AJ for now.
After they left the room she quickly came over and slid down and rolled over for a belly rub and then popped up and started making rounds back and forth between my desk where the treat pouch with kibble in it was sitting and the feed bucket in the bathroom- sniffing and hoping for some kibble.
Photos of a very petite black lab- the first one is of AJ laying on the floor with feet spread apart and looking to her left. The second is her sitting in front of my legs and looking back over her shoulder. Below left is of AJ laying on her back enjoying a good belly rub. the last one is of AJ looking intently past the camera at the door.
She soon realized that Cristina wasn’t coming back to get her and started to whine and wasn’t wanting much to do with me unless it was my hand giving her kibble.
2:00- one of the biggest changes in the training program since I was there last, is that we have started and will continue to do loose leash walking this week until Saturday. Cristina came and got me and we took AJ out to break first. In which she surprised me and actually did a number two pretty quickly. Usually dogs will hold it with new handlers and when under stress. Then we started down the long hallway to the dining room, working to each fire door and the dog stops and we reward the dog. We are to keep the dog at a controlled pace and if getting too excited or pulling too hard, then we are to stop, make the dog go to a heel position and give the Walk command again. We work to the dining room and sit in there for a while trying to get the dog to settle and stay as other dogs walking in and out of the room. AJ is already showing her stubborn streak as she would start out between my legs and beneath the chair but keeps creeping out the let side of my chair to the point that she is half way out from the side of my chair. Cristina said we will give her a few days with this and then start trying to work her to stay between my legs, which is where I’m most comfortable with her being and safe from people walking by.
We then worked to the leather lounge to do the 3:30 meeting with everyone and all of the dogs in the room together with their new handlers. Which is organized chaos at first since it’s the first day of dogs and handlers learning each other. Soon everyone’s dogs begin to settle down except my diva that is rather vocal and whiny because her trainer was a few feet away and not rescuing her from this crazy human in the end of the leash. A strong correction got her settled down and we were told that we would learn how to feed our dogs individually and how much.
AJ was a little heavier than the vet recommended when she came in for training so she had been put on a reduced amount of food. She is at a pretty good weight and she now will be fed 3/4 cup of Nature select in the morning, a 1/2 cup will go into the treat pouch for the day (this will go down as we start to scale rewards back after we get into next week) and then a full cup in the evening.
4:00- Cristina let me go ahead and feed AJ on my own since I was familiar with the whistle feeding process. This is where you make the dog and stay. Then you put the bowl down and blow the whistle in 3 short blasts and that releases the dog. This is used for several reasons, the primary being for if the dog should get away from the handler then if they are wearing their whistle, the dog will associate the whistle with feeding/treats and return to the handler promptly. The second if for recall when fee running the dog in an enclosed area and the dog should return back to the handler. AJ is another 30 second food inhaler like Rei was.
5:30- dinner. We worked our dogs down into the dining room and had a wonderful dinner of breaded pork and pasta with asparagus and cheesy garlic bread. AJ stayed pretty good under the table until about dessert and then started getting antsy and creeping out from My chair again.
6:15- Water the dogs
6:30- All students that are transitioning to a successor dog went downstairs to the rec room and had that lecture. The first time students had their lecture on dog and leash basics. The returning students discussed a lot of things about our dogs and actually talked up to the 8:30 break time and we all made our way back upstairs
As I went to the bathroom AJ came in an laid on the floor so maybe that bond is starting to turn a corner
AJ on the floor in the bathroom laying with her head on her paws
8:30pm- We took the dogs to the break area to go out and AJ quickly went pee and came back up onto the curb indicating she was done. I sent her back off the curb a couple o times and she indicated she was done so we went back inside.
I then called home and talked with MD, AC, and Mike about AJ and how training has been going. They were thrilled with her and asked all kind of questions.
Now I'm reviewing my lectures for tomorrow before heading for bed.
Automobile Travel
Street Work
Addressing Errors
