Sunday, September 16, 2007

of puppy parties and weave poles

Today Ike went to a puppy party. Considering the amount of people and dogs, he did awesome. I have to let him be a goober - I try and stop him when I don't need to. How I figure out when I do need to versus don't need to....that's another story. Practice, I guess.

For those not in the know, a puppy party is typically given when a puppy is still in that very special time frame when lots of positive imprinting can occur. Believe me, my next dog will be having a puppy party!

Katrin has suggested that Ike might benefit from hanging out with a dog that has good social skills, that he can then model his behavior after. Since Ike can be so stand-offish, finding a dog he really likes is not such an easy task (rather knowing whether-or-not Ike likes a particular dog isn't easy!). That's why we attended the puppy-party, in hopes that someone there would be Ike's kind of dog and of course to assist in helping Lisa socialize her adorable Vizla Ryan. Among the many dogs there was a red Basenji named Ellie. Ike took a serious liking to Ellie and I have called her mom to see if I can set up some play-dates with her. It is surely just a coincidence, but the last three dogs Ike has taken a liking to have been small, red colored, and female. Hmmm....

After Ike had dinner and a nap, we worked on our weave poles again. I started where we left off at about 5 inches separating the poles, and poor Mr. Ike did not remember what to do - at first. One oops and he was back on track. Per Cat's recommendation I moved the poles in pretty quickly. I moved them in about 1 inch, then 2 inches, then completely closed. Well, what do you know - Ike's poles are definitely faster! Holy crap. He also totally thinks it is a game. I say "Ready....go" and race him to the end. He LOVES it. It will be really interesting to see if this performance carries to the great outdoors and different venues. I HOPE SO!!!

No comments: