This last week with Rhea has been productive. Her prep for the public access is going well. The issue spots like the ramp and metal grate platform that were a huge struggle are now becoming locations that she shows a great growth in confidence and trust in handler while navigating the test. She is still a bit tricky with her walking at a heel, at times just perfection and then she gets nervous and is a puller. She’ll have jerking head movements looking back at other dogs and then pulling forward. This has been a work in progress from the start. When alone with handler, she seems to be more compliant. It is not a fear of other dogs just a mildly neurotic hyper focus on where they are. While inside performing the more of the prep work she is again a puller when in crowds. This is really her only struggle with the basic obedience side of the training. When it comes to the commands like Sit, down, under and her recall followed by a commanded heel to your side, she is perfection. Her confidence on the elevator is incredible to see when reflecting back to how fearful she was. I’ve also noticed a lot of improvements in her normal dog behavior. I see her with a wagging tail most of the time. Part of each day that brings me great joy is when we all come down to grab our lunches. Each unit is called down and lines up to receive their lunch and she is in a under command under a seat about one foot away from everyone walking by. I separate myself from her about 15 feet on the other side of the line and she has a pile of food in front of her that she not allowed to have until the task is completed. There are always people in line trying to speak to her and engage with her, she remains focused on me and waits so patiently. Then afterwards there are so many compliments about how awesome she is. I have become so fond Rhea. I am confident is her ability to pass the upcoming test. Now for the task oriented training, retrieving items for owner. This has had some mild improvements in her overall drive to play games and fetch, but is still a struggle to bridge it to a retrieval of items at random. I will continue to work more each day with this. Dogs with little to no toy drive are tricky to get excited about this type of task. More work to come.
