Dog park.

We took Piper and Violet to the dog park, and Piper was perfect. She's never been aggressive at the dog park, or we wouldn't have her there, but she can be uneasy at times, and has been known to growl when other dogs overstep their bounds. With her, we just can't write that kind of behavior off, so we've worked quite a bit on that issue. She was grounded from the dog park for a little while so we could work on her stability and trustworthiness without taking any chances. She's been doing excellently in a variety of on-leash situations, and on-leash reactivity is usually her issue, so she got to go today, and she was flawless. She was friendly and outgoing, her body language stayed good the entire time. She and Violet befriended a Schnauzer/Poodle mix (whose owner, admirably, did not call a Schnoodle) named Olive. And by befriended, what else could I possibly mean but herded relentlessly? I think that little Olive will be sleep well tonight. She was the one, lone sheep to two high energy herding breed dogs. My birthday's coming up, along with Violet's, and we've put in a word to Eric that what we'd most love is a trip to Dogwood Farm to give sheep herding a go.


On the Violet/training note, I don't know how to transfer her crazy training energy/focus out of our house. I'm admittedly a very novice trainer, and of the two of us, me and Violet, I'm the idiot with the most to learn. I've come to love clicker training and positive reinforcement training, and every time Violet learns something new I'm awed and thrilled all over again. At home, she has eyes for no one but me at the first sign of a clicker or the first hint of a training session. I have her full attention. She won't look away if the house is on fire. Anywhere else - like, for example, the awesome agility training area that our dog park has, which I would love to be getting some practice in on before we can take a class in the spring - she's distracted, understandably. I can sometimes get a sit out of her, or a touch or paw while she's looking the other way and grumbling about it. Anything beyond that is a no-go. I'm sure I'm missing something very obvious, or expecting too much, but I'm not sure how to start moving her training intensity out of our backyard.


Anyway, pictures!

The beginning, middle, and end of her interest in agility equipment today.

Poor Olive.

They were quite friendly about it, but that dog was not going anywhere without their okay.

Violet is a smart dog, but her problem solving leaves some to be desired. She gets "stuck" in the agility enclosure. It's a huge pen with one gate, and finding the gate is just beyond her.