Day Twenty -- Wrapping it Up

Thunder has been such a good girl! It's hard to believe our time with her is up. She has worked hard and played hard.

She's walking nicely on leash.

She's getting use to her Gentle Leader (for those times when walking nicely on the leash is just too hard).

She's doing really well with "leave it."

She'll even leave a stick of cheese.

Her recall is looking really nice!

She's working really hard on her sit for greetings.

She's been really attentive even with cute, adorable distractions around.

I think we have successfully worn her out over the last several weeks. She's had a good time playing with everyone. And clearly she's growing like a weed!

We will all miss her here but I know she will be so excited to see her family! It's been a pleasure, Thunder.

Day Nineteen -- Hanging with the Peeps

Thunder is so good. Even when two dogs she hasn't seen all week arrived this morning, she could be found sitting by me, looking up as if to say "What next?"

It's not that she doesn't like playing with the other dogs because she does. In fact, she loves it.

But she has a really nice balance between the play with other dogs and her interactions with humans.


She's really good at checking in and responding despite fun and exciting things going on around her.

Her recalls are coming along nicely she's just a touch slow. But, then again, she's a little slow at a lot of things she does. We just keep encouraging her and moving backwards when she is coming towards me to entice her to come more quickly.

Thunder was happy to see Billings again. And he didn't seem to mind that she was just about to sit on him. She makes me laugh with that big, long monkey tail.

Later she and Billings had a little party under the bed. I'm not sure I was invited but I snuck in for a picture just the same.

What a happy girl! She is very fun to work with. It's hard to believe it's almost time for her to go home.

Day Eighteen -- Out and About

There are times when dogs need to use their nose, root around, and sniff. It's just part of being a dog. But there are times when it's not appropriate for your dog to sniff around and be nosey.

We've been on several outings where Thunder was allowed to explore a bit as part of her socialization. Today we focused on leaving things alone in the store. In order to set her up for success, we start out by getting her attention before we walk into the store.

We're building up tolerance for the head halter so we used that for part of the visit. It's a nice tool in places of high distraction and it works great if she is real sniffy and trying to investigate everything.

She was far less distracted on this visit. She did great practicing her "leave it" in every place in the store except one spot. It was the bin that had all the smoked bones. We had to work hard to get her to leave that bin.

But most things, including a person sitting on the floor, she did a perfect "leave it." We are at the point in the training where she is starting to generalize that command to a variety of situations. So far, so good! Unless, of course, there is a big bin of smoked bones. But, with a little practice, she'll be able to manage that bin without a problem.

She's thankful that she wasn't told to "leave it" with her friend. Although it can certainly be used in that way, today we just enjoyed our friends.

Dogs and people alike...

Another big day and another hot day. Time to rest up for tomorrow's adventures.

Day Seventeen -- Beat the Heat

We had to get our playing done early today to try to beat the heat. Thunder plays pretty nicely with other dogs with a little bit of guidance. Dogs running side by side is a pretty good sign that play is going well.

Dogs taking breaks during play is another good sign. Instead of continuing to wind up, it's better if she self-regulates a bit and slows when needed.

Dogs also do what is called self handicapping. Even though she is clearly bigger that this puppy, she inhibits her bite and gets down low and small when playing with him. A little vocalization is normal but it shouldn't get too intense.

Some conflict is normal but, again, it shouldn't be intense. Even though Thunder is tugging with this dog, she should fairly easily give up on the game if need be and neither one should start to get possessive of the toy.

She should be attentive to you even when she's out having a good time. Checking in periodically is a very good sign.

She should easily come out of play when you call her as well. It's not very realistic to expect her to come when you have just released her to go play but it shouldn't take more than a minute or so for her to be ready to check in with you again.

So what do you do if she's not listening? What if she's playing too rough and not responding to you when you are asking her to take it down a notch? You should be able to easily interrupt that kind of behavior with a calm voice. If you can't?

A quick time-out will teach her that she needs to listen or play will end. Just putting her in a sit between your legs, holding on to her chest, and not giving her any attention for a couple of minutes is enough to get her to settle a bit and learn to behave more properly.

Too hot today so it's time to head inside.

But we can continue our play inside.

And, when she needs a little break, quietly chewing on a chew is a great way to end the day.

Day Sixteen -- Fun in the Sun!

We tried to spend a lot of time outside today even though it was a bit warm. Sinbad was happy to have the company...he hates to be the only one melting outside. But this weekend is suppose to be HOT so we may not be outside much tomorrow.

She has such a good time with the other dogs...

But I make sure to be involved in her play as much as possible. I want her to know that humans are as much fun to play with as other dogs. This will help her to be more in tune with where her people are at all times. Sometimes you see dogs that get into a play group and could care less where there people are at or what they are saying. Part of building a good recall is preventing that from happening.

She's very responsive during play and will settle right away. Just what we want! And she does it with a big smile.

We make sure she is nice and responsive to commands when she's playing too. It's nice to be able to get her from a state of high energy one minute to a calm, controlled state the next minute.

Of course, she needs time to just be a dog too. There's nothing like a good sniff with a friend.

Or exploring nature. That girl loves her dirt...

We're still working hard on her automatic sit for greetings. It's not perfect but it's definitely improved.

It's a good thing too because those paws tell us she's going to be a big girl. No sense waiting until she can knock everyone over before addressing the jumping issue. Now is the perfect time to nip that in the bud.

She's doing really well in her crate. She's a little vocal in the morning when she hears me moving around. We've been practicing being calm and sitting before opening the door. She's really coming along nicely with that!

We're practicing our greetings a lot when she first comes out of the kennel too because that's a super exciting time for her.

If you are looking for us tomorrow, we'll be hanging out by the AC vents. She's got them all scoped out...