Public Training

Busy days working on training and getting Sunny comfortable at our house.  She spent all week with us, we have her this weekend and will have her all next week as well while the trainer is out of town for another client.  We've encountered a few bumps in the road, but that's to be expected.  We need to re-frame our thinking and training techniques to turn things around and all will be well.

Earlier this week Charlie and I had a chance to go out in public with Mike and Sunny to work on training.  It was a great training session where we both learned what we do well while handling Sunny and what we still need to work on.  We walked around downtown Rochester, went inside Mayo Clinic and on busy sidewalks downtown, practiced crossing busy streets and navigated stairs, elevators, and escalators.

Sunny doing her "block" command to keep Charlie from entering traffic

We have some practicing to do around navigating stairs- Sunny often rushes up or down stairs and pulls Charlie with him.  We need to remember to tell Sunny to "wait" so she doesn't end up pulling Charlie on his face.  In the picture below you can see how Charlie walks with Sunny while holding on to a short leash while mom or dad helps to handle Sunny from another leash

.  Charlie also has the option to hold on to a loop that is on the back of Sunny's vest.  Charlie goes back and forth on which he prefers but we plan to get a shorter leash for him to hold on to so it keeps him closer to Sunny.  I had to remind him numerous times to stay close to Sunny so he isn't running into people coming from the other way.  Same goes for walking on sidewalks on busy streets.  

Walking the skyway in downtown Rochester

We stopped to take a break and help Sunny to learn to wait patiently (which she does fine with).  In the picture I'm explaining to Charlie that we will get a shorter leash for him to hold on to.

Practicing waiting in a patient waiting area in Mayo Clinic

We had a great morning training with Mike and Sunny and we have started seeing a small bond starting with Charlie and Sunny.  On our car ride home Sunny was very snuggly with Charlie with her head in his lap.