Priceless

The weather foiled my plans to get Monte out and about every day, but we did make it to the Badger hockey game last night. Sometimes I think he is too smart. After we parked the car and walked through the parking garage, I could sense his excitement growing. As we neared the Kohl Center, he cried, whined, and jumped around when asked to HEEL. More than just being stir crazy, we tried to control his energy with a few timeouts.

Under "control", we entered the arena and walked around. He was fine until he stopped to meet a few of the security staff. On each occasion, he cried and wiggled uncontrollably. We have found that corrections are useless at this point, they only exacerbate the problem, so we stepped back, put him in a SIT and we continued to chat while Monte observed.

Being virtually snowed in would usually limit out training opportunities. However, today Monte had a priceless opportunity. Not having children in the house or access to a second grade class, we never know how our puppies will behave with children.

Fortunately for Monte, our five year-old goddaughter, Avery, had her plans canceled (blizzard) and had to spend the day with us. Generally leery of our four footed projects, she uncharacteristically decided to "work" Monte today. She spent over an hour (total) asking Monte to SIT, DOWN, STAY, rolled a ball, and then told him it was OK to get his toy. Not sure who was enjoying it more Monte, Avery, or me.

Avery eagerly took my advice to make him wait longer than a second after rolling the ball to let him retrieve. I told her to wait until he looks at you and then say "OK". When he wouldn't look at her, she would maneuver her face in front of his and tell him it was "OK". The only downside was that we must have heard "Monte" repeated a thousand times today; Avery wasn't able to get the desired response with a single command. It generally went "Monte sit, Monte!, Monte sit, Monte drop it, Monte drop it, Monte down, Monte down, Monte!, stay, ... OK". I couldn't get her to lower her voice to be more authoritative. Both of my protegees need more practice.


Update: We administered Monte's final dose of antibiotics, round three. With only a few drops of blood on the gauze this should be his last. The bandages will remain for a few more days.