Since my last update, we completed our Level 2 RAD class. From there we moved on to FOCUS, which was more centered around trying to get your dog to focus their attention on you with a variety of distractions. We did okay in this class. Lita was definitely able to work in the presence of other dogs. Our biggest struggle continued to be loose-leash walking. :) After that we moved on to Lita's favorite class yet: Nosework! Wow. She LOVED this. Basically our trainer sets up a huge number of boxes, chairs, and other obstacles and hides food around the room. Doggy's job is to find it. Once she got the hang of this she was flying around the room on the scent. We play at home sometimes and she still loves it. Since that class, yes we've completed 2 whole courses since my last update!, we have now moved on to SOAR (Strength, Obedience, Awareness, Reliability), which I like to think of as Doggy Yoga. :) Lita has found a new favorite thing... an egg ball.
She climbs up on that thing and it is a struggle! for her to maintain her balance. She can do 2 feet on, sit on it, lie down on it. It's a lot of work though--you can see her muscles shaking and vibrating.
We've also worked with some other balancing tools. We're working (and failing) at teaching a retrieve. She's also learning to spin (links! for left and rechts! for right)--she doesn't know the verbal cues yet, but has realized that she *can* turn both directions now. And we're doing stretches as well.
We've hit a few snags. This is the first class that she has been in that has had multiple dogs all "working" at the same time. The first time we tried joining our doggy classmates on the various obstacle challenges, Lita could not focus at all... "Look at that dog, what's he doing?! oh, there's another one! I smell good food this way, let's go!" Disaster. Since then we have been staying in our partially shielded corner while the other dogs move throughout the room, watching (mostly) calmly. Once they return to their stations we have been able to go out and do a few things while maintaining some degree of focus. Awesome!
Training at home has been a challenge. Well, it always is... because it's hard to be motivated to "train" after working all day. :) But it's been DARN cold here this winter and we've had a ton of snow. So there have been days when walks have been impossible. We've been playing a lot of "find it" on those days. Lita doesn't mind.
Health-wise... we've taken a down turn in that area as well. The Loo is now coming off a month of Baytril. Yes, a month. She has had an on again/off again infection on her belly, right along the line of her surgical scar. We put her on a 2 week course of the Baytril. It helped but didn't entirely clear everything. 2 more weeks. Things still continued to improve, but never completely went away. And we started seeing blisters between her toes again. *sigh* I hate thinking my poor girl is miserable. We've been bathing, spraying, powdering, dosing. Now it's back to the vet on Monday. New doctor this time.... hope we don't have to start at the beginning because of that! We'll see what happens.
Next class session we're heading back to nosework. Time for Loo to have some fun again! Once the weather warms up we'll head back to some heavy-duty behavioral training again.
