Margot is doing much better with her counter surfing but she's not perfect. One of the most important things you can do is monitor her at all times and interrupt her the second she tries to put her feet on a table or counter. Better yet, interrupt her when she is thinking about it by using her "leave it."
For things she gets into a lot, like the trash can, we can practice "leave it" over and over again.
With enough repetition, she'll start to figure out that it's more rewarding to leave it alone.
We can do this with things like the trash can, shoes, and...
Wood!
This one is super tempting for her so I reward her well when she responds to her "leave it."
Right now, we're practicing repeatedly so she gets the idea to leave it alone on her own.
If I see her choose to leave it alone on her own, I definitely reward that. If this was a real-life "leave it" I would also redirect her to a better activity so she doesn't keep thinking about that wood and going back to it.
Now to pretend like I'm doing something else but I'll still keep an eye on her so I can interrupt her if she goes for it.
In stead she made a really good choice!
Lots of praise and rewards for that!
It's really important to not only tell dogs what we don't want them to do but we really need to tell them what we do want them to do.
When she's making good choices, I'm going to capture that behavior...
And reward it.
That helps her learn which are the better choices.
And we are conditioning those good choices.
She did really well if she thought I was looking.
Which makes sense because she knows she will get rewarded.
Especially if she is offering all sorts of good behaviors.
But I have to develop eyes in the back of my head to catch her when she thinks I'm not looking.
At that point, I had already started out with a "leave it" so now it was a verbal interruption to let her know she just made a not so good choice. "Ah ah ah" lets her know she's doing something she's not suppose to be doing...
And I immediately escort her into a crate for a short time-out. It's not done in anger, just a "too bad" and in she goes for a few minutes. She doesn't get to be out if she is acting like that.
Lots of practice with those automatic sits for greetings.
She's getting really good at offering them, sometimes with flare.
But I want her to think that's how you greet all people and that's how good things come to her.
Her Golden Retriever friend started coughing once he got home and, unfortunately, upper respiratory infections are contagious before a dog shows symptoms so little Miss Margot started coughing today. It should just run its course like a cold. She'll need to stay away from other dogs until after her symptoms have resolved (Bug has already been exposed to her but a lot of times older dogs won't even get it). Just be on the lookout for signs of a secondary infection like green or yellow nasal or eye discharge, loss of appetite, lethargy, etc. and make sure to get her into the vet if any of those occur.
It's definitely not slowing her down but exercise is causing her to cough right now so she sounds like a seal.
It's been fun having her here! She will definitely be missed....
Although I'm pretty sure Bug will be happy when she is not sitting on him when he is trying to nap. Other than that, everyone loved her!
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