Author Archives:

Jean Reports

Mac went to Jill’s place of employment. Jill and Mac went early in the morning to get Mac acclimated to the work place.It was all very new to Mac. He met several of Jill’s co workers, who of course fell in love with him. Jill reports that she feels secure and and less anxious in public when she travels with Mac.

From Jean

I phone Jill today curious to see how it was going.  She said she was bonding with Mac. She has already been to several stores with him.  She expressed that she feels very secure and less anxious when he is with her.

Busy Day

Mac had a busy day.  He went to the restaurant to meet Jill’s boss.  He didn’t go alone. He had plenty of company.

There was Jill, her boss, the general manager of where Jill is employed.  Also Lynn his wonderful foster/ trainer, Jean Williams from AGR, the Millers founders of Operation Wolfhound, and Zack the intrepid photojournalist of Tucson Weekly.  Mac slept in the corner of the restaurant while we ate and talked.

He went to his veteran’s Jill home today 5/29 to stay!  It was wonderful to see them together.  Mac knows he belongs to Jill.

Mac then went to Jill’s home where he did a “security sweep”.  Met other members of his pack: a rat, 2 cats and of course Hailey who he has met before.  He explored the backyard.

Alicia did some training with Mac to know how to pick up a prescription medicine bottle.  He understood it after 3 times.  Of course it helps to have a great motivator..cheese glorious cheese.

In order to strengthen the bonding process, Jill was going to act as Mac’s “woobie” or security blanket for the next several days.  She will have to feed him from her hand.  She will be holding or having near her Mac’s leash for 24/7.  Mac needs to figure out who is his new permanent human. 

Mac and Jill will continue their training journey with the Millers of Operation Wolfhound.  AGR wishes Mac and Jill much happiness.

Jean will still be monitoring Jill and Mac’s progress and attending training sessions to post on Mac’s blog.

So stay tuned!

Mac & Chihuahuas

Did training with Mac today and he was solid as a rock as he met 3 chihuahuas. Two of them are rescues that Mac’s person is fostering and the third is her sweetheart. He let the tiny white chi stand on his back as he was walking around. 

It is always wonderful to see the joy and purpose that comes to a sighthound when they know what they are going to do with the rest of their life. Two months ago Mac was still very excitable on the end of a leash, pulling and jumping around and highly distractable. Today he was perfect on the leash as chihuahuas were at his feet, walking on lead next to him and even when the sweetie was scooped up and stood on his back to see if he would object to such a tiny thing in a ‘dominance’ position. Mac has figured out what his people want from him and is so quiet and happy to do it. He wears his vest with comfort and enjoys walking around and standing with his people.

He will be going with his vet soon and will be doing the training with her for further tasks.

From Operation Wolfhound’s FB Page

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.