Mocha is trying to figure out the new routine. My roommate got her up and took her out in the morning, gave her breakfast and then back to the crate she went. What? On Mondays I try to sleep in so that I can get back into my late night working schedule. Well, understandably, Mocha wasn't too keen on that. She fussed a bit in the crate. During a period of silence I decided to see if she would come up on the bed and snuggle. Well, she did come up on the bed, but she didn't want sit still for long. She was rarin' to go!
So I got up early and we went outside. She said hello to the cat, Capri, who decided not to hiss at her this morning. But she also didn't stay in the area long. Mocha just wants to play! The cat wants none of it.
Mocha played with several toys out in the yard, including retrieving a rope tug toy to me several times. Well, she kind of wanted to run past me with it, but I swooped her over to me and made a fuss over her with the toy. Of course I was too bleary-eyed to have remembered to take a camera with me outside, so I have no photos of our early morning play session.
After I got a few chores done, we had a little clicker training session in the kitchen. I'm certainly no clicker training/operant conditioning expert, but it's fun to play around with, and is really positive for the dogs.
I had associated the clicker with food yesterday, and did a little refresher before starting to work on any behaviors. First we worked on having her touch my hand in order to earn a click and treat. She caught onto this quickly and I was able hold my hand in several different positions and she touched it with her nose. It doesn't sound like much, but you can guide a dog to many positions if they will do a hand touch, and she's learning how to earn rewards (how to make me click and get a treat!).
Next we worked a little bit on "sit". Since I come from an obedience training/competing background, I'm trying to see if I can get a tuck-butt sit instead of a rock-back sit. So for right now, I'm clicking when she moves either of her back feet forward while I'm luring her head up with food. One of the cool/interesting things about operant conditioning is that you don't name the behavior (give a "command") until you're reliably getting the behavior you want. So, I'm experimenting with how to encourage different behaviors, but have yet to give any "commands".
P.S. Ethan loved it because he was in the kitchen with us and got many rewards for lying down and waiting while I worked with Mocha
Then we went out to run errands. One of our first stops was at my friend Lisa's house. (See photo on left) Lisa has a Belgian Tervuren named Mika, Mika is from a Tervuren "Moon litter", so she and Mocha had something in common right off the bat! Mocha waltzed in and explored Lisa's yard and house, with enthusiasm.
In the photo on the right, Mocha looks in on Lisa's two cats (who had been strays in Lisa's neighborhood). They are safe in a little sunroom behind glass. Mocha enjoyed looking at them.
Time for a walk! I had an hour or so to wait until Ethan's track was old enough to run, so decided to take the dogs for a walk along one of the flood control channels. This particular section runs back and forth between a couple busy roads, so when it's time to turn back for the loop, we have to walk on a sidewalk over a bridge with a lot of traffic nearby. Mocha handled this very well, the only time she stopped was when a big bus breezed past us and made a loud sound. I have to be careful because when she decides to stop and watch or listen to something, she sometimes stops right in front of me! I'm surprised I didn't step on her!
She does notice everything - smells, sights and sounds. She likes to take it all in. We saw a LOT of squirrels. I think at the end of our 1 hr walk (it usually only takes about 40 minutes, but we took our time today), she was getting a little tired.