Working through fears

      Ever since Jet first set foot on my porch, he has had a piece of my heart.  He takes a bigger and bigger piece of it every single day.  I love this dog so much!  With that said, I have to try to keep in mind he is not mine and remember why I'm raising him.  And that means I have to stick with working him through his timidness and fears.  I think it's safe to say he HATES things behind him.  I've tried lots of things to work through this and will continue working, but I would love suggestions from other puppy raisers who read my blog, or anyone else for that matter.  Our latest "workout" was with toys.  I rubbed them up and down his back and tried walking behind him with them making noises in my hands.  He didn't like it much.  But, he did pose for a picture for about half a minute!

"I HATE this thing!  I'm uncomfortable!"

Here's his panicked look..."Oh, no, she's going to walk around me again!"

Then, we practiced some "leave it" and self-control with food.  He does really well, but didn't want the food near him.  I think he was afraid he might cheat!

These pictures took many, many tries.  He didn't want the food near him and he finally backed himself into a corner to hold his stay.  This was as close to an outline as I could get...not as good as our friend Kolby!

And finally, some beautiful fall pictures I was able to take.

Rainy Night Fun

    Sometimes rainy nights turn into the most fun evenings with the puppies!  Tonight was one such night.  I didn't get to take the dogs outside because it was downpouring, then I was making dinner, and now it's almost dark.  But, we had a good time playing inside.  We played Hide and Seek.  He was good at finding me, but has some work to do with waiting for me to call for him.  We practiced jumping on an elevated surface and doing a Sit and Down while up there.  Then, he practiced carrying things around for me.  He tends to carry them for a bit, and then just drop them whenever the urge strikes him rather than when I've asked.

"I'm up here.  Now what?"

Just keeping watch over the fall decor!

Just ignore all of the laundry drying!

Who can resist this face!

Enjoying the fall weather on Monday

A Study Buddy

    We have been really busy learning around here!  Unfortunately, I haven't taken pictures of any of it.  I'm just not good at remembering my camera lately.  Jet is learning and maturing every day though.  He is up to 43 pounds!  He's a tall broad boy!  One thing that Jet is struggling with is having people walk behind him.  I've noticed it in a variety of situations.  So, we started off at home working on it in a Sit/Stay situation.  I put him in a Sit/Stay and tried to walk in a small circle around him.  Having wood floors proved to be a disadvantage for what I was trying to do because he simply slid his bottom in a circle in order to keep me in front of him.  But, we practiced and practiced and I can now walk in a circle around him and he keeps his bottom in place.

    We have now moved on to having someone walk closely behind him as we are going for walks.  At first, he would have NOTHING to do with this!  He would NOT turn around and walk facing forward.  In fact, it wasn't just his head stretching around to look behind him....he would have to turn his entire body around.  He didn't want another person or dog behind him.  Period.  End of story.  Finally, after a few long walks, he will walk calmly with Husker (the little yellow lab puppy I introduced you to a while back) and Husker's people walking behind us with minimal checks over his shoulder to see what they're up to.  I love having Husker to practice with.  It's teaching Jet to work around other dogs and Husker is getting good training as well.  A win win situation!  I'll try to take a picture of the little buddies in the next couple of days!

Happy Labor Day!

     We have had a crazy busy week around here!  First off, I'm excited to announce that my husband is starting a new job.  We have taken a huge leap of faith and he's going to try working for himself as a home inspector.  We are going to be more crazy busy in the coming weeks as he gets started...he will go to school, get licensed, doing a lot of start-up tasks, etc.  Very stressful, but exciting.  This weekend, Jet got to go along for some more shopping.  Last weekend it was furniture and office supply stores, and this weekend it was some random stores to get Pat some professional looking khakis that will hold up so he can crawl around on roofs and in attics.  Not an easy task!  But, Jet was very patient.  And a great example for a couple of people who made it quite clear they didn't approve of him being in the store with me.  :(

    It wasn't all work on this holiday weekend, though.  Jet got introduced to the lake.  He LOVED it!  As soon as he saw it he was bouncing up and down wanting to jump in.  Since it was incredibly busy we made him stay on a long rope to play.