"Look"

There are 3 things that The Pastelitos have not been doing well the last two weeks: "Look," "Heel" and "Stay."

For "Look," I should be able to say look and they look at my face. Dogs are 80% visual, so hand signals work well for teaching behaviors. The verbal commands are added after the behavior is mastered. They did this REALLY well in puppy and Intermediate class when I was able to use the clicker to signal "Good Job" and give them a treat as a reward. I can't do either in Advanced. In fact, for the first week of Advanced, I had to completely ignore them so they wouldn't take me for granted. After that week, they were completely focused on me at all times. Yet for the past few weeks, when I say, "Look!" they've just ignored me. They knew that what I wanted next was for them to sit and they would go ahead and sit but without the “look” first.

My trainer taught me a trick to get them to re-learn “look.” She said that if you tell them to “look” and they don’t, pinch the tip of the ear REALLY hard. It sends a shock and gets their attention FAST. I did that with Guava and as much as it pained ME to see her jump, it worked. The second time I said “look” after the pinch, she jumped away from me but did look. I was able to give her a “Good girl!” and scratch her head. Once she re-learned that “Look” can bring GOOD things, she hasn’t ignored me.

I was thinking about how the way I have to train them is similar to the way God is training me.

I need to remember to "Look," especially when He calls. It's one thing to do what we know He wants us to do, but that's not enough. We have to remember to always “Look” for Him to tell us rather than assume we know better. Also, sometimes if we don’t look, we get pinched and it hurts. We learn quickly to keep our eyes on our Master. It’s better for us in the long run.

God's plan and the Dog plan

I have a plan for my dogs to be well-behaved, pass their CGC and then become Reading Therapy dogs. It looks like that may not happen the way that I wanted. My plan hasn't changed, though. The Pastelitos are just taking a longer route.


In the same way, God set up His perfect plan in motion and we messed it up. That doesn't mean His plan has changed, it just means our path has. When we stray, lose sight of Him or worry that He's left us, He helps us get back on track in a number of ways. Sometimes, it's painful. When we focus on Him, it's easier to understand what He wants us to do.

Mulligan on the week

Things were moving along quite swimmingly for a few months and then this week hiccuped. It started REALLY well as we were off school Monday and I spent the entire day catching up on errands and projects around the house. By Wednesday I was tired, unmotivated and just bleh. I hadn't practiced with the dogs for school, so their last session was disappointing. I was behind on school stuff, then a deadline hit me in the face. I wasn't exercising so my health goals were backsliding. My AdvoCare business wasn't developing as steadily as I'd liked. My previous tenants were STILL trying to figure out how they were going to move their belongings out of the cabana, almost 3 months after they moved back north while I was trying to get the cabana ready for someone who needed it in 2 weeks. The roofer finally billed me for the final payment, but my paycheck still didn't reflect my raise and extra supplements. Thursday, a boat swamped during sailing practice with two kids on it and then I got to my car to find not only a flat tire, but a flat spare as well. I just couldn't seem to get a solid grip on anything. OH, and there is a full moon tonight. No coincidence, I'm sure.

The good thing is that setbacks are only temporary. As long as I keep that in perspective, it's all good. I HAVE been working consistently with the dogs for over 9 months, so this one week of slacking can be overcome. My school deadline is do-able because I did prep work for it a month ago. I can start running/swimming again today AND I learned that swimming at night with the moon and the patio lights is just as good as swimming in the daylight. The AdvoCare business is moving forward because I've been putting steady hours into it every week and that consistency is paying off. I've got two people moving to the Advisor level this afternoon and my 2 week check will be twice as much as any I've received before. The tenants are taking care of getting their stuff and it looks like the new tenant isn't coming after all. My last paycheck was finally accurate and I'm able to work on a new budget for the year.

Tiger Woods has practiced his golf game his entire life. If he has a bad tee-off, he's entitled to a mulligan. I think I'll take on on this week and hope I won't need another for quite some time.

As for this afternoon, I'm taking Queso to the park to practice, then Guava to Starbucks for her homework. Then I'm meeting with my AdvoCare team to help them with their business (which ultimately helps mine). Then I'm setting my goals to get through the week. Wish me luck.

Dog-noramus

When we got back from Obedience School today, I took both dogs for a walk around the block. As we approached the pizza (Casola's) the corner, a fire/rescue truck pulled up and parked. As it did, the occupants thought it would be funny to flick the siren and make "meow" noises through their PA system. Guava FREAKED out and tried to pull my arm off to run back home. As the firemen were chuckling, I said "THANKS! Thanks a LOT!" They obviously didn't speak sarcasm.

I took the Pastelitos home and walked back to Casola's, saw the idiot at the counter and asked him to step outside so I could speak to him. I explained that a) my brother is a fireman b) I served as volunteer fire personnel in my little town growing up c) I'm really considering making my dogs service dogs (I think Queso might be great for search and rescue, actually) d) through his idiotic actions, my dogs are now terrified by fire trucks.

I didn't lose it, I just spoke as calmly as I could, although I was LIVID. He DID apologize and said usually when he does that, everyone thinks it's funny. I told him to please think before he does anything like that again. Hopefully he will.

Delight/Desire

Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

This was part of my study today and although I've read and heard it so often, I stumbled over it this time.

I'm learning in puppy school (as are the dogs) that when they do what I'm asking, they hear the click and get the reward that they desire. This works much easier when I know they are focused on me and they know that I have the clicker and the treat bag handy. Queso will THROW himself into the "down" position before I even ask, since he knows that's what we're working on this week. That immediate submission only happens with treats in hand, though. I have to reinforce the behavior until they follow the command not because of the reward, but because it is so ingrained in their nature that to not "Sit" when told would seem wrong. If I need them to obey (for their own safety or the welfare of others) and I don't have treats, I need to know they'll do the right thing.

Unfortunately, we often treat God like a vending machine. We misunderstand Psalm 37:4 to me "If I do everything right, He'll give me what I want." I've found that to be a struggle because even when I think I'm following what He wants me to do, there is no clicker and definitely no treat bag. At least, not full of the things I desire.

I have to get to the same point that I want The Pastelitos to be at: complete submission due to ingrained nature, not because of anticipated rewards.

Puppy School and the Four legged foodie

Queso started "Puppy School" last night. Guava starts next week on Thursday. I'll be spending 2 nights a week for the next 8 weeks at Petsmart. We got there a bit early and met some of his classmates. There was an adorable 2 month old beagle who, while standing on his hind legs, came up to Queso's eye level. The beagle (Pasquale) kept chewing on Queso's ear and crawling all over him. He didn't do anything back; he just sat gently while the puppy played. He's only 4 months old himself. Now THAT'S a good dog! I get them comment about The Pastelitos all the time; they are really well-behaved and happy dogs. In public. At home, it's another story. Actually, they ARE good dogs but sometimes I forget they are just babies and I have to keep my eyes on them.

The first class is about how to load the clicker, which is what you use to signal "good job" when the dog does something right. To load it, you have to pair the sound with a treat. To demonstrate, the trainer tried to use the beagle: "When Pasquale takes the treat, I click so he knows to associate the clicker with a treat." When she tried, Pasquale was SO not interested in the treat. She moved on to an overly picky-eater Shitzu; same problem. I raised my hand and said, "Queso will eat it." And so he was the star. My dog is a foodie. How appropriate.

MangObama

I took the Pastelitos to The King Mango Strut today. There were tons of people, lots of loud noises and many new smells. They got lots of attention since everyone who sees them has to stop and tell me how adorable they are. They behaved like champs, even going to sleep amidst all of the noise.

Pardon me, but you're standing on my tail

Last night, I went to a game night with friends. I took The Pastelitos along (with permission first, of course) because I've read that exposing puppies to as many different people and situations as possible before they are 16 weeks old makes them very well socialized. They are 15 weeks old today.

There was also a 10 month old baby there. I was a little worried that they would want to play too roughly, but they behaved wonderfully. At one point, they were both asleep in the middle of the floor and the baby was crawling all around them. All of a sudden, Queso lifted up his head and looked at the baby with a bit of concern. I looked down and saw that the baby was STANDING on Queso's tail. He didn't yelp, he didn't nip, he didn't even whine. When the baby got off of his tail, he went right back to sleep.

I've got the best Pastelitos in the world!