Training went very well today. Mack obviously did a lot of thinking about his avoidance training from last time, because he totally ignored the baby chicken today, until it was put on the ground. Despite obviously being very afraid of the escalators, he still went up and down them again and again, and even when given a completely loose leash he still stayed with his human rather than run off. When taken into the pet store he controlled himself very well, only needing to be told no once, then behaved himself towards the little puppies just fine from then on. Then he was taken over by all the baskets just FULL of tons of goodies and didn’t steal a single one. So he is progressing very well.
A photographer/journalist from the Tucson Weekly also showed up. Apparently he is going to do an article, or series of articles, on Mack and his training. He took LOTS of pictures and notes today.
Meanwhile I (Robert Miller) was working with Red. This was not her first time doing this training either, and she did wonderful. She went up and down the escalators with obvious reluctance, but she trusted me enough that she did it anyways. The last few times she even began to make it look easy. She also did perfect in the pet store. Absolutely no aggression towards the puppies, and she was so good about not stealing the baskets full of treats she refused to even look at them the majority of the time. Only thing she needs to get better at is walking with me rather then trying to walk me. Even so she barely pulls, and a significant part of the time she doesn’t pull me at all, so she is learning.
We then took her to On the Border to do restaurant training with her for the third time. She wasn’t perfect. She wanted to do some table surfing, but after about half a dozen attempts she finally got the message and stopped. Then she did not want to sit or lay down, but after a while we got her to do that too. But most importantly she wasn’t aggressive to anyone, she was vigilant the whole time, and was simply her sweet self, and she learned.
The journalist took pictures of her too, so maybe she will be part of his article, or articles, as well.
So a really good day, in my opinion.
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