Ella made some great improvements this week. She is showing signs of greater engagement though at times can still seem to “check out” and not be interested in training or being engaged with her handler. After noticing the food we were using was possibly too large for her to chew we switched to a smaller size kibble and she began to show greater engagement. The food we were using could have been stale or old as well. Some dogs start rejecting food at that point and I believe this was the case.
One issue that has come up is that Ella will often have bladder leakage while laying on her mat in the room. We are trying to pin point the cause of the issue but don’t have an answer yet as it can happen at any time during the day. We are going to cut her water consumption back and see if that helps.
Due to Ella’s lack of engagement and fear issues, she is slightly behind in her training. She can sit, down, heel, up, off, and stay with no issue but does not know, under, out, or leave it yet. This next week we will focus on those commands.
Overall Ella is progressing but my biggest concern still is her fear issues. It seems she can flip a switch in terms of her emotions. One minute she is up-beat and excited and the next minute appears very sad as if she has done something wrong. In those moments her engagement vanishes and it is very difficult to get her to do anything.
