Click!

Last night I decided that I really needed to get started on clicker training the girls. Frodo was sequestered elsewhere (he becomes quite the pushy show off when he takes part in training sessions with the fosters) and I took Bess upstairs in the bedroom where it was quiet and there was limited space so she wouldn't dash around.

When clicker training, the first thing that you do is "load the clicker". You teach the dog that click=reward. Most of the time it takes about 3 clicks and the dog has figured it out, but Bess was so overjoyed about not being on the end of a leash that she could really care less about the treats and was more interested in exploring. After a few minutes she settled down though and figured out that clicks are GOOD!

Within a couple minutes she understood the sit command (with a hand signal) and was really fast with her sits. What a smart girl she is! We'll work on this a couple more days so it's really ingrained and then we'll work on sit-stay.

For Tilly I muffled the click at first because I was worried that it might frighten her. In fact, I wasn't sure that she was even ready for training, but I figured, what the heck, it won't hurt to try. I think that she understood, but I'm not fully certain. She too was busy exploring the bedroom because she usually is only in the room at night in her crate. She understood the click=reward part, but her skittishness made it tough to fully know much she was taking in. Sit is easy for Tilly because (at least for me) if I say "Tilly" she will run over to me, look up at me and sit there to find out what I want. It's just what she does. I used the hand signal with her as well, however, I think she was more nervous about the hand and that was why she sat, not because she understood that I was asking her to sit. That's okay. We have time to work on things and as long as the training periods are short and positive, it can only do good because she's getting more socialization.

Today at the Pet Market a regular customer offered to hold her for me while I rang something up. I warned her that in the past Tilly has nipped when she gets fearful and wants to get down. She said she didn't care, she'd been bitten by much bigger dogs than an 8# terrier, so we tried it. Tilly was NOT happy about being pushed so far out of her comfort zone, but she lived. She stiffened up and looked pointedly up at the ceiling to avoid eye contact, but she didn't snarl or nip. (Phew) The lady just pet her and cooed to her. As soon as she was handed back she snuggled in close but kept looking over at the lady, checking her out and then quickly looking away to make sure the eye contact wasn't seen as a challenge. YAY TILLY! On top of that, she was so cute in her little bandana that we got about $10 in donations in Izzy's surgery donation jar just this morning. Only $85 to go and the surgery will finally be paid for. Then the jar will become Bess and Allie's heartworm treatment donation jar (Allie is a momma dog that is being fostered with her pups in Yakima and also needs heartworm treatment once they are fully weaned.) Since we don't have heartworm here in Washington (thank goodness!) the cost of treatment is sky high. Even with deep discounts from our rescue vet it will still be about $300 per dog to treat them.