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| Sunny at 6 months old |
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| What a character she is - quite the supermodel! |
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| This was the hardest shot to get! |
Wow, time is just flying by and Sunny is growing so fast. She doesn't look like a puppy anymore! she looks like a little dog. Of course she sure acts like a puppy, but a very good one :-) I have taken on a new job helping to start a new indoor agility center in Fresno and it is taking a lot of my spare time. Yeah, that time where I would get out with my camera and then sit at the computer in the evening and process the images. Oh well, the new job is exciting and I get to take Sunny and Flint with me when I go up twice a week to teach classes. They both love the indoor facility. I love to hear Sunny running on the mats - you can hear every footfall. I think she likes to hear herself run on the mats too LOL!!!
Sunny is doing great in her training. We are still doing all the things she was doing and more. Let's see....I started perch work with her a couple weeks ago and she is starting to figure out to move that rear end around. I love shaping behaviors. Each day I get out the phone book and clicker and treats and work in really short sessions. It started with getting the front feet on the book and then progressed, getting her to understand to keep the front feet on and move the rest of the body around. There were all sorts of contortions going on for several days. Then I captured some rear end movement and gradually she caught on. The big moment was a couple days ago, I put the phone book down and she jumped up there and swung that butt around about 6 or 7 steps toward my left side! Yahoo!!! She is getting it!
Today she did her first sit stay in front of a jump (the 4 inch kind) and got released over the jump! WOW - is this my puppy? She continues to blast through tunnels but is also very responsive to front crosses. I started teaching her how to rear cross a couple days ago too. And of course she is catching on fast. She can sequence a curved line, something like.....tunnel jump, jump, chute, jump and to the table. She loves to do the fast and fun stuff!
Hand touches are okay - I started her touching a target and have it on the ground. She can stand straight by my side and touch the target. It is a new trick and she gets bored pretty quick with this one. Also started teeter bang games this week. No problem! She has been jumping on the wobble board since she was 9 weeks old. She thought teeter bang was a lot of fun - something new to do.
I have even gotten her out and done demos with her in class. Sunny stays pretty focused even with distractions. Oh, and her tugging is back to shark attack style. She was like that before she started teething but got weaker on tugging for a while. She did tug while teething - just not shark style, but that part is back! I am using a lot of toy rewards, but now I need that second toy to get her to come back. But two toy game works great with her and she comes flying back to grab the second toy. Sometimes it is my hand - but that part has gotten a lot better too LOL!!!
She continues to be super friendly with all dogs and people. I just love that about her! We are going down to Cayucos on Sunday for an ASCA trial. Sunny hasn't been to this place before so there will be lots of new things to see and do. The trial is on a ranch and the weather is supposed to be cold. I still have Flint in open. He is ready to move up, but I decided to stay in open till next year. No rush, I just quit calling him a dweeb a couple months ago LOL!! Boys take forever to grow up - he will be 4 in August. Time goes on and they grow up so fast.
