Last night we received some unexpected house guests. The knock on the door and ring of the doorbell cause Buddy to lose his head. He barks and gets overly exited to meet our guests. This has been difficult to work on because it usually catches us unprepared. He may or may not have the pinch collar on and never on leash.
Manners training occurs at any time of the day, scheduled, but usually impromptu. So last evening, we let the guests in and restrained Buddy by manually handling the pinch collar until we could get the leash attached. Eventually he settled down after about 5 minutes, but he definitely needs more practice. We are going to have to schedule guests so that we can be prepared to reinforce the proper behavior.
He was much better behaved in the morning after getting accustomed to the guests. This episode was especially difficult because two of our guests were children under five, which for some reason cause a similar excitability as other dogs. I think Buddy views them as peers and playmates. Last week at training we had a new child walk Buddy around before the class started. Another opportunity for improvement for Buddy.
Today, due to the inclement weather, we didn't leave the house except for his morning and afternoon walks. The rest of the day was more laid back and we worked on Sit/Stays, Down/Stays, and Cradling. Not very exciting, but like Marlene says, "Training is Boring", "Repetition, Repetition, Repetition".
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