Check-In Week 1 (Inverted Longe Line)

There are no written assignments this week but I wanted to check in on our progress before our next session Monday. 

First, an update on my Daniel-- my husband Graydon drove him back to Lehi Thursday to meet with our Orthopedic Surgeon and they finally unwrapped his knee after the second wash-out last Friday night. It is looking pretty good! 

He is on crutches for about a month and oral antibiotics for 6-12 weeks. His pain is finally dying down-- everything is looking good!

This week I've been working Niko for ILL and QT. Monday I did two sessions ILL, one in the morning and one in the evening, that lasted about 30 minutes. The first session I used my other dogs as distractions- one dog was great at it, the other dog had a hard time staying far enough away for me to actually work Niko (lesson learned). The evening session was in the front of my house walking back and forth on our gravel parking. We were joined by my cat who will hiss and growl and smack Niko if she gets too close, but spent those thirty minutes happily following us back and forth, antagonizing the puppy. 

Tuesday I only did one 30 minute session in the morning. This was a repeat of my Monday evening session, on the gravel parking in front of my house, except for the absence of the cat. 

Wednesday I did a 30 minute session in the morning and a 30 minute session at Home Depot in the afternoon. The morning session was a repeat of the morning before. I was concerned about the concrete floors at Home Depot but more concerned about overheating the pup, so I decided to try it out and be careful with my corrections. When there were people that walked into the aisle we were using, I stopped before we reached them and turned around. We basically spend the day ignoring people. As we were leaving, a couple who had been shopping and asked if I was training her asked me if I was training her to sell or training her for myself. "She's mine- sorry!" was my response. 😊

Thursday I did a 1 hour session at IFA in the afternoon. This was similar to Home Depot the day before, except for by the end of the hour I tried walking past shoppers as they came in the aisle. I think I only needed to correct Niko one time. She did a great job. I think she struggled most with the little kids- she wanted to say hi. We also walked up past the chicks and bunnies, and again, I only had to correct her one time before she simply ignore them. Great pup-- I needed to buy a landscape rake for my husband and as we were checking out I had an employee compliment Niko on how well behaved she was. 

Friday I intended to go to ACE for a 1 hour session but ended up doing QT with her at Roxanne's while I watched another training session. There was a short scrambled LL at the end of that session but I ran out of time to do our planned ILL time. 

Today (Saturday), I spent an hour in the early afternoon at a park with my family. My younger boys wanted to practice batting with my husband. Here I pulled all stops- I had toys, plates with lunchable contents, bowls with various treats and kibble lined out along the edges of our path, and then my boys also helped with her distractions. I only had to correct for the toys/treats a couple times before she ignored them (or even avoided them). Before I even had a chance to ask my middle son to help with distractions he came over and started being one (my boys inherited natural obnoxiousness from their mother), so I embraced the crazy and had my cameraman-son take some video. I asked my husband and my younger boys come up and play catch for a few minutes, and got a video of that. Niko had the hardest time when my boys were cleaning up and my Leo, Huckle was involved. I did a few extra passes during that exercise than I had previously because I wanted her to end on a high note and it was quite difficult!

First few passes, today.

My William is learning how to work around my Huckle.

After my Jürgen volunteered his obnoxious side... 

Sometimes my boys have a difficult time with directions.

Jürgen filming this time while other boys play catch. 

Probably the most entertaining video of all.

My husband is recording.

Better with the sound up. 😂

I took videos of our sessions on Monday, which I uploaded to my channel but will not include here. I had my boys and husband record short segments of our session today (included above) and I am so impressed with the progess we both have made. I'm much more comfortable with LL and I was happy to see just how focussed she was on me during our session today. I have also loved seeing the shadow of her curly tail bobbing back and forth as we walk away from the morning sun. I feel that ILL has gone really well for us, this week. 

In contrast, quiet time has been miserable. I tried Monday after our morning session and I think I was outside for over two hours. I made an active effort to remain calm, but resetting the timer every time she stands up drove me UP THE WALL. I do not have the attention span for quiet time!

Our attempt at QT after one of our morning sessions.
I thought a shorter lead (stairs instead of chair) might help. 
It may have a little- I'm really not sure.

I tried a few different times, but not the required two sessions per day. I also asked my husband to do quiet time with her, and he tried at least once this week. I'm pretty sure she did not settle for a full thirty minutes even when we were observing Roxanne's lesson on Thursday! I am really struggling with this exercise. I'm hoping as she matures she will be better and settling in, but right now it is my least favorite thing.