Puppy Meetings, and Sue

My morning started to the pitiful little cry of a lab puppy waking up; after about fifteen or so minutes, and frequent little cries, I waited until she was quiet, before leashing her up, and taking her out to "busy".

Since I still had 15 minutes before I HAD to get up, I brought her in my room, and tied her down to my bed leg, with some toys. She climbed on the dog beds and happily chewed on a bone, while I attempted to sleep some.

10 minutes later, I decided to go ahead and get up; busy lazy Bubbles, and feed both dogs, then another trip outside...and time for me to get dressed. After a few minutes of making sure I had space on me camera, Penny and I were out the door, and on our way to the parade!!

{Neil 8-months-old and his raiser}

The dogs handled the parade and all the noises very well, I was most impressed with Ms.Sue; there was one point, when some.....guy started shooting off his gun right in front of us..which thoroughly freaked out Sue; so we moved away and I walked her around some and did some obedience with her to try and get her mind off of it.

{Working Dog with Canine Companions for Independence}

And throughout the rest of the parade we stood a little ways off; so as to make a hasty retreat whenever she freaked; then we would regroup and come back. After we made it too the end, I got all of her things from Penny's raiser, and were on our way.

To....somewhere.....

We wound up at my favorite place on earth. (NOT) WALLY WORLD!!
I don't know what it is about that place, but EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. WE GO IN THAT PLACE.
{Insert Puppy Name Here (except midnights)} has an accident! And despite my efforts to get a "busy" outside...which could have been harder...but it was cold and I had to visit the ladies room as well. So inside we went!

And about a minute later, I was cleaning up the floor.

I totally deserved that.

Oh well, we made it through the rest of the trip well and purchased some things for Tex's visit....small dog toys etc.. lol. I refrained from buying a coat for him.

I decided to visit PetsMart, and get some treats for training. While she was very well behaved...I do not appreciate people, who think they can tell me, how my school wants me to train my dogs.

But I digress.

Once home, I let Sue explore some, busied her then put her on tie-down, while I swept the floor and did other various things around the house; I gave her carrots and a Kong Wubba, to keep her occupied, and she had lots of fun, making a mess with the carrots. ::big grin::


After that, she snoozed on her bed, while I was on the computer. Once she woke up we went back outside, and I started working on getting her to focus on me, and not pull on the leash. This technique works very well:

Sue is a little goofy, and it took about five times for her to realize...Oooh yeah....follow Erin!
After that we worked on her name, "Come" and "Down". She's picking it up very quickly.

Her house manners have been pretty much perfect, and she's a pro about controlled retrieve.
Which, I'm ashamed to admit, Midnight was horrid at.
So this next week should be a breeze!

:-))