Been a few days since I posted so time for updates.
Saturday was a busy day for me and poor Wilfred was left with the Hubby most of the day while I was constantly running in and out. But for the first time he went and grabbed his muzzle and asked to play the game with it. He even put his nose through the loop and into the basket a couple of time. Played with Jack again and Pheonix watched us through the fence. I think she may be warming up to him so may try an intro soon.
Sunday I was gone from 5:20am to 7:30pm. Hubby worked at the game store in the afternoon and then spent some time with his dad. Will was alone for a good chunk of the day, but did very well with it. According to the Hubby they played a few games of tug before he left for the day.
Will now loves his Kongs. Filled with cheese wiz and his kibble. The fact that he only gets them when he’s in his crate has made it much easier to get him in when we need him in. Going to be buying a lot of the smaller Kongs so we can always have one filled in case we really need him in the crate and don’t have time to prep one.
Monday morning we made another leap forward. Most mornings after we go out for potty and have a snuggle on the couch I fill his morning Kong. This consists of me filling it while he barks loudly, bounces around and nips at my feet and ankles. Nothing hard, just annoying. I started to stop filling the Kong when he did this. Monday morning he moved to just poking me with his nose. This we can live with!
Monday night another leap. He’s been getting all of his dinner while laying on his bed. Little bits at a time to reinforce laying quietly on his bed while Hubby and I do things like watch TV or play our game systems. Getting dinner out has been the same as the morning Kong filling. Monday night he went and laid down on his bed and barked at me. Improvement! Now to work on him not barking his head off while I’m prepping his food.
More muzzle games on Monday night, but didn’t push any farther than Saturday, especially since I was bad and didn’t work with him on it on Sunday.
Tuesday was another banner day. No nipping while filling the Kong, went to his bed as soon as I opened the food bin, probably time to start adding a signal for that other than me walking to the food bin… and we got the muzzle on for a full 10 sec. Massive rewards during that and I took it off before he started pawing at it. Then took him back and did just a few of the really easy ones where he just has to pop his nose in with the strap pulled back. He looked so sad when I put it away. But that’s the plan, get him to love his muzzle. It seems to be working 🙂
On a mostly unrelated note I nearly hit a Beagle on my way to work this morning. He ran right out in front of me and when I stopped, nearly got rear ended as well, he ran back to where he started. I pulled off the road and grabbed my spare leash and set off after him. He was wearing a collar so I was hoping to catch him and get him back to his owners quickly. He got away from me by going under a fence into a residential area. I really hope he was just heading home and that I don’t see him laying on the road on my way home tonight.
trainingwilfred 