Day Four...

Today was a very big day.  Allison went to Wal-mart with her Daddy and got a new pair of pink, furry and shiny Princess boots!  She hasn't taken them off since. :)  If we let her sleep in them, she would have!  Today was kind of tough for her.  The days are long, and we can't play with her as much as she'd like us to.  Although there's a ton to do and lots of puppies to play with, she is becoming bored from some of the monotony.  Not to mention, I think she's starting to feel a little slighted at times.  We're trying to find the balance between fostering the relationship between Aubrey and Zachary and keeping Allison involved with Aubrey as well.  It's not as easy as it may sound.  There are certain toys and treats that are so motivating to Aubrey that we need to reserve them just for Zachary.  She sees how excited Aubrey gets and wants to participate but really can't in certain situations.  Whenever Aubrey and Zachary are near eachother, we need to praise Aubrey and use Zachary's name as part of our praise.  At nearly five years-old, this is understandably upsetting to Allison.  She has come right out and said, "What about me, Mommy?"  (They don't tell you about Mother Guilt before you have your children!) We keep trying to explain to her that, yes, Aubrey is our dog and Aubrey really loves her, but she's also here to help Zachary when he's sad or having a rough time.  She's just too young to understand anything other than she can't give Aubrey the special treats that Zachary gives.  In addition to some hurt feelings, I definitely think there's a bit of a jealousy factor from Allison's perspective since I am giving Aubrey so much attention.  It's absolutely akin to bringing a new baby home.  And, for those of you who remember Allison as a baby....she loved her Mommy and didn't want anybody else!!  Not even Joe.  :)  The Big Girl Fairy did leave a gift in Allison's car seat on Thursday while we were training.  This gave her a HUGE lift, and we made a super, big deal about it.  The Big Girl Fairy will continue to make appearances while we're here to help Allison feel special, too.  Since we knew a lot of these feelings would arise, we did think about all of this before we came and made sure we traveled to Ohio prepared with special surprises from The Big Girl Fairy.  Tonight, I'm going to take Allison to Panera for dinner....just special time with Mommy.  Now that we're into a routine with Aubrey and we have some obedience training under our belt, we'll each be doing something special with Allison each day. 

So, yes, we were at training today!  We worked on more obedience training with more distractions and firmer corrections as needed.  As the dogs become more comfortable with their new handlers, they do start to test the waters and see if "sit" really means "sit" or "heel" really means "heel".  It's no different than a child.  If you don't give a correction the first time, the dog will not actually "sit" until the third time you give a command if that's when you give the correction.  Miss Aubrey definitely tried to feel things out today.  She broke the "down" position a lot more frequently than she had the past couple of days.  And, she needed much firmer corrections to follow through.  I guess she's the strong but silent type of girl!! LOL  We also practiced having Aubrey stay in the "down" position at the table.  Since she won't be in public, she doesn't have to stay under the table, but we do want "down".  While we want her to be with Zachary as much as humanly possible, we don't want her begging for food...ever!   We worked a lot on "heel" which is the position she should be at next to you when she's walking.  In a "heel", our thigh should always be between her head and shoulders.  She likes to tug sometimes.  She certainly doesn't drag us or take off,  but this is something we'll need to focus on a lot more while we're here. There are times when she'll have to walk slowly when she's with us.  Even though she's not a public working dog, she still is a service dog and there are certain expectations of her.  The other families practiced walking with a shopping cart in a "heel".  Tomorrow, we'll practice with an umbrella stroller since that's what we'll be using in the community. 

We, of course, went tracking today.  We'll do it everyday until we leave.  As each day goes by, Aubrey will become more focused on tracking Zachary's scent, and we will become the primary handlers.  We'll also need to practice tracking at least once a week so she does not loose the skill or drive to find Zachary in the event it's, God forbid, not practice.   She did great again yesterday!  This time I hid with Zachary and Kayla (one of the other trainers), and Joe and Allison were on the track.  It was really cool to watch Aubrey search for us from the opposite perspective.  Since the wind was blowing, it did effect the scent cone and essentially moved Zachary's skin cells much further to the right from where we actually walked and left the original track.  Aubrey did exactly what she was supposed to do.  She moved further to the right to relocate the wider area of the scent cone.  She paused and "circled" a couple of times on her Flexi-leash, which is a 16 ft lead, when the scent weakened, but then, you guessed it....IT HAPPENED!  She found the scent and took off.  It was the whole bat-out-of-hell thing again!! Jeremey had to slow her down a little bit so he didn't get slammed into a wooden fence!  You never tell her to stop during a track though.  All you do is slow her down a little bit if there's a safety issue for you.   Jeremy assured us that she'd never run into anything, but if you don't slow her down a bit when you need to that you definitely will! LOL  Aubrey has no concept of the fact that you are running behind her and could hit a fence or tree....she's focused on the end game.  She found us and we were sooooooooo excited.  You're teetering on manic when she finds you.  You need to be that excited to maintain the drive she needs to track.  We refocused all of Aubrey's attention on Zachary and kept using his name when we told her what a good girl she was.  Zachary was also holding the bag with the hot dogs, and he was the only person giving her the reward.  After all, we want her to understand that the hot dogs AND Zachary are at the end of the track. 

Zachary and Aubrey continue to develop a lovely bond.  She really is such a sweet girl.  He's always following her around and interacting with her.  Hejust loves that she sleeps in bed with him.  If Zachary is getting a little bouncy or antsy, we're encouraging him to lay down with Aubrey so he continues to associate the feeling of calmness with Aubrey. We're inundating her with her special treats whenever she's laying with him, gives kisses or merely acknowledges him.  We're also giving her treats if he playfully tugs on her tail or accidentally bumps into her.  It's extremely important for Aubrey to understand that Zachary may doing something during play or by mistake, but he's still THE greatest little boy for her to be with.  This type of reinforcement will be even easier once she's on a regular diet which should be by Sunday. 

Zachary loves to be with his girl. 

The feeling seems to be mutual;

Aubrey knows that Zachary is her guy! :)