Small steps, new accomplishments, and a return to routine helped Nakina and me find our way back into training this week.
🐾 Engagement
I’ve been a bit more focused this week and have been trying to find ways to re-engage with training. Nakina is still loving life, so I’m hopeful that means it’s working.
Training
We did some focus training this week, particularly working on calm behavior in the car. I have a new device that plays calming music for dogs, I’ve added shades to the back windows, and we’ve continued desensitizing Nakina to a calming cap. We aren’t using the calming cap in the car yet because the desensitization isn’t complete. With just the music and shades, though, we’ve calmly driven down the driveway. This week, we’ll try making it to the end of our street.
On Tuesday, we attended our Prep for Beginner Novice & Novice Competition class. Nakina did a great job. She did break focus during the “leave the dog and walk around the ring” exercise, so we’ve been practicing maintaining focus in less distracting environments this week.
Our AKC Tricks Performer class and private training session went very well this week. Since the AKC ATT test is coming up soon, we did some work on walking over different surfaces and responding calmly to sounds. We’ll continue working on both this week.
AKC Scent Work Imprinting & Beginners class went very well this week. Nakina was able to find the hides with no difficulty, so we are now working on developing a clearer alert indication.
We’ve also continued working on Gentle Leader desensitization this week.
And we had another accomplishment to celebrate: Nakina was officially awarded her AKC Virtual Home Manners Puppy title! We also completed the AKC Virtual Home Manners Adult program and are waiting for confirmation of completion from the trainer.
Socialization
Nakina is working very hard on not jumping when she sees her absolute favorite people, and it is coming along very well. She knows what she needs to do, but impulse control can still be difficult when she gets excited. We’ll continue working on it.
What's Next
- Emergency Stop & Hand Targeting — reintroduce and build consistency
- Down vs. settle — continue creating a clear distinction
- Stay — increase distance, duration, and distractions
- Recall — continue on leash in more distracting environments
- Travel Crate — zipping with no stress
- Grooming — begin grooming desensitization on the table
- Continue elevator desensitization
I didn’t feel like we had accomplished all that much this week until I sat down and wrote it all out. Clearly, keeping a log of our activities is helpful for me, too.