6 Months, 4 Weeks: Training - Day 61

Emma is becoming a confident dog when sitting and waiting for me
 to click!

Today I played the snooze alarm game - not with the dogs, but with the snooze alarm.  I was tired and didn't really need to be up as early as I have been these past few days.  Jack wasn't due to arrive until after 8 AM and Emma was already at my home.  The alarm went off at 6:30 AM, but I kept getting up and hitting snooze.  This is a new behavior that Emma has not seen.  Max, on the other hand, has and recognized the game the moment he saw me stumble to the alarm (it is across the room from my bed) and smack it.

Emma was quiet and waited until I woke at 7 AM and let everyone out.  I let her stay out of the crate while I showered today, though I gated all the dogs into the room, and then went about getting their food dished up.  I have decided to dish up her and Jack's daily allotment of food all in the morning and work off of it throughout the day.

Today we worked on Duration with Sit.  Everything was going great and I started to write up the morning lessons when my neighbor started to play his stereo.  He's a young man who lives with his mother and when she's not home will play his stereo at dance club volumes.  He started it today - again - and I finally hit my limit after 5 years of this.  Half of my daily migraines are due to the Chinese Water Torture technique this music has on me and I could see, by the way the dogs all suddenly fidgeted, that it was having an affect on them.

I went next door to ask him to turn it down, but he didn't answer and therefore decided to have someone in authority talk to him.  It turns out, he went off the deep end after the police spoke to him and turned it up to the point it was rattling my walls, windows and dishes.  The remainder of the day would be like that - which left me distracted and in a sour mood.

Emma was ready to train though.  Each time we worked she was ready and willing to participate and after her beginning disquiet with the loud music, ignored it.  She was funny and playful and full of spirit today and thankfully that bled into my sour mood and I ended the day enjoying her and Jack playing after I had finished out training.

Today's Lessons:

Sit

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 3 Sit.  In this step Emma is asked to sit for while the handler stands 5 feet away and waits 30 seconds for the handler to return.  I have spent a lot of time working on her sitting and not changing direction to face me as I move about her on all points on the compass.  I have been adding duration to her sit by clicking and rewarding while she remains in her sit, but have not built up to 30 seconds between one click and the next.  She is able to do a solid 10 seconds and can build up on occasion to 15 seconds, but seems to fidget around 12 seconds most often.  I am taking my time building this, since one of my problems with Max has always been his inability to stay away from me at a distance for any extended period of time.  I want Emma to be okay with this and feel confident when asked to sit and stay.

I am not building a "stay" command into this behavior.  I want a sit to mean "sit there until I tell you otherwise" and "you can lay down if I tell you wait".  I want a default stay for Ms. Black Bullet and ensure she won't bolt if something excites her when working.

So, her Sit, Down and Stand will have default stays built into them to ensure her safety.

I later took the whole behavior outside into the yard.  I worked all points on the compass, but did not work duration.  Remember, I changed the criteria to a lower level because I built the difficulty up by taking her into a more charged and exciting location.  With the distractions of the outside (smells, sounds, sights) I was not going to ask for a 12 second Sit when we hadn't even worked on my walking around her or away at different angles.

I did a lot of around and off at varying angles and was very pleased to see how solid she was on those behaviors now.  She was off leash and all of this work has been off leash.  Remember, control of the dog is through the dog, not the leash.  I will add the leash and add distance and circling her on lead in new areas as we progress, but right now, I want her to know she can control herself no matter where we are without my holding a lead.

I am pleased with how well she did in the yard and will get a long line to work this in the street and build up her sit in a new location.  I am also about to work on her climbing new objects and sitting on them to really cement the concept of sit in her mind.

Emma is still working on Level 2: Step 2 Sit.

Lazy Leash

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Lazy Leash.  In this step Emma is asked to walk in the loose leash zone without a leash.  To achieve this I walk and present treats to her whenever she comes into position at my side.  I decided today to take this outside and work along the ramp.  Emma quickly got the idea and stayed most of the time in the zone and focused on me when walking with me.  I couldn't drop the treats, since they fell through the slats of the ramp, but I did present them to her whenever I clicked at my side.

Emma is ready to move to working this step throughout my yard and build up her ability to stay in the loose leash zone and pay attention to my direction changes.  Once she's comfortable with the direction changes and can really not be lost, I will move her to the next step.

Retrieve

Emma is working on Level 3: Step 1 Retrieve.  In this step Emma is asked to put her mouth on a pencil, spoon and another object.  I am working with a pencil at this time.  I have her solidly nose targeting the object and she's starting to put her lips on it hard enough to press her teeth on the pencil, but I am not yet seeing a purposeful attempt to open her mouth to take it.  Part of this is I can't see her lips to see if she's making the attempt to lift them when approaching the pencil - part of this is because she had Jack trying to take the pencil for her.

I waited until Jack went home tonight to work on this step.  She actually started using her teeth on the object more often than not and finally I saw her whole mouth open and the pencil went into it. I praised that heavily and took a break before re-addressing this lesson.  She didn't try to take the pencil in her mouth again, but she did a lot more work with her teeth.

Emma will continue working on this step until she's comfortable and willing to open her mouth and take the pencil in it.  I will then work on other objects until she's comfortable with them also.

Observations

Emma is thinking and not just reacting.  Instead of lunging to get treats out of my hands, she's trying to solve the problem I offer to get me to feed her.  I love this stage, when the dog realizes that working on the puzzle I give them will result in getting the food I offer.

She is more focused and just learning, now that I am able to be outside with her for longer periods, that she doesn't need to have a bark attack if she sees people outside of the fence.

What I love is her recall.  Emma came to us with zero recall and today she ran 75 feet to me with joy when I said her name.  She had picked up some item in my yard and was racing with her pilfered prize to my backyard when I called her and she dropped the prize and raced to me at top speed and let me grab her and praise her heavily for coming.  Emma's recall is becoming amazing and I love the joy in which she runs to me.

I look forward to tomorrows lessons on more of her service dog skills.  I want to start adding socialization lessons which include trying new and uneven surfaces and new and strange sounds and sights.  This week should be fun, since Emma is not in a fear period and she's bold as brass, it's a perfect time to add new experiences to her world, which includes working beside a wheelchair and trying the climbing toys at local playgrounds.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	3	3	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	2	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	0	0	0	1
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	1	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0

6 Months, 4 Weeks: Training - Day 60

Emma is happier now that she isn't fighting me on
eating her kibble for her training.

I asked Emma's family to feed her just kibble this weekend and if she didn't eat it, to just pick up the bowl and put it up until the next feeding.  What a difference that made.  She came in ready to eat her kibble and train.  She was happy and excited and playful when she arrived.

Jack was already here and he was glad to see his friend arrive also.  They played a bit in the yard and then came in to continue training.  Emma worked happily with me for kibble today.

After getting some in her belly and giving her and Jack a break for a bit before training again they both decided to not work for kibble.  I put the food up and went about my daily routine, ignoring the fact they were unwilling to work for kibble.  They will get hungry again and we can continue our training.

She's bringing in teeth again and I am giving her plenty of appropriate toys to chew on while she does this.  Her confident and bouncy personality is so different from every other dog in the house she's like a storm in the house when she first arrives and I have to give the whole crew a few minutes to settle into the weekday's work.

This should be a positive week for us, since she's now working for kibble and I can get more work in when training her.  She's adjusted to Jack's being present and can focus to work also.  I look forward to her progress this week.

Today's Lessons:

Down

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Down.  In this step Emma is asked to stay in a down for 1 minute.  I am starting at Step 1, which asks Emma to stay in a down for 10 seconds.  I did this because Jack was in the room and was a new distraction.  I asked for repeated downs until Emma stopped popping up and then worked her up to 5 seconds in a down.  I will continue this until she can do a 1 minute down.

Retrieve

Emma is working on Level 3: Step 1 Retrieve.  In this step Emma is to open her mouth and try to take the pencil I offer in her mouth.   Emma is working on using her lips and teeth on the pencil now.  She is still doing primarily nose targets or hard upward pushes with her nose, but is starting to use her lips and teeth.  We got a bit further when she saw Jack take the pencil himself and tried to take it afterwards.  We'll continue to work on this step until she is taking the pencil in her mouth.

I spent the remainder of the day focused on Retrieve with Emma.  She's starting to open her mouth and use her teeth on the pencil a good 40% of the time, which is fantastic.  Once I can tell she's offering this behavior with purpose and 60% of the time I will begin to reward only when she's trying to put her mouth over the pencil.

Emma is progressing nicely on this particular skill and I am hoping to build her up to the next step by the end of the week.

Observations

Emma is starting to mature and focus on the games we play. She settles into training nicely and is thinking when working with me.  When I brought out a mat for Jack she promptly went to it to and stood on it.  This shows she's now playing my games by recognizing the environmental cues.

The biggest problem I have is she gets into this wiggle and sit with her back to me behavior when she doesn't want to play.  At this point, I am ready to walk away and let her know being out of the game takes my attention away from her.

I am hoping to progress on her training this week and move up a step on retrieve and sit before the end of the week.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	2	3	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	2	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	0	0	0	1
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	1	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0

6 Months, 3 Weeks: Training - Day 59

Emma tends to hide or shutdown when she doesn't want
to do something.

I woke before my alarm this morning, but was so tired I needed another hour of sleep before I could start my day.  I used the facilities and heard Emma whine at me.  I ignored her and she quickly settled again.  When my alarm when off I once again rose and again heard Emma whine.  I waited for her to quiet and then let her out.  She was happy and ready to start the day without barking at me.

When Jack arrived she was ecstatic and began play bowing at him and trying to engage him in a game of chase.  After letting all of the dogs do their business, I put my three up and left Jack and Emma out with me so they could play.  Jack finally joined the game for a few chases and then went to the front door.

After getting the dishes done I then started their morning with feeding the two Dachshunds.  Emma has learned she is not allowed to eat out of the Dachshund's bowls and she is not allowed to hover over Attitude while she eats.  She went to her spot and waited for the dogs to finish eating.  Meanwhile, I was keeping Jack away from Attitude's bowl.  Soon Jack will know the rules about food dishes in my home also.

When it was Emma's turn to train she once again held out and refused to eat her kibble.  It took a moment, but she finally decided to eat it, but when I returned to her for a second round of training she completely refused to eat her kibble.  I may have to put some parmesan cheese on her kibble to spike it up slightly and get her eating dry kibble again.

At this point, Emma has not had a lot of training because I felt myself get upset and angry she wasn't accepting her kibble and stopped my training before I lost my temper.  I suspect by mid-day she'll be hungry enough to try eating again, but today I am going to tell her owners to only give her a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of food tonight, no matter how much she's eaten, to build her appetite and return her to eating dry kibble for working in the home.

Today's Lessons:

Focus

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Focus.  After a bit of a battle to get her to eat her kibble, we managed to work on Focus this morning.  She was highly distracted so I lowered the criteria for a moment and built her quickly back up to 2 seconds of eye contact.  I was able to rotate between 1 and 2 seconds of eye contact.   She is starting to get idea that I am asking for prolonged eye contact and she's getting comfortable providing it.  We'll continue to work on this step until she's solid with it.

Observations

I want to talk about Emma not wanting dry kibble and my wanting her to eat it.  Max, who was trained with chopped hot dog, cheese and other high value foods had a hard time refocusing on me in public locations for what he considered "normal" fare when  I started working on his public access work.  I had been feeding him whole meals of kibble in his bowl, which at first he was ho hum about and it took time to build up his willingness to eat.  When I realized I was giving him, for free, a bowl full of rewards for simply sitting and waiting to be released to eat, I started to use some of his breakfast each day to train him and then give him the rest of his food in his bowl for the morning.

By the time Emma came to me Max was switched over to using kibble as a reward and willing to do whatever I asked to earn his morsel.  He was eager and willing to learn in public for the higher value foods because they were, once again, high value compared to the training food used in the house.  I could even get him to work for kibble in public some days if I wanted a calmer reward when proofing behaviors.

Emma has decided that kibble, in or out of the bowl, must have moist food on it and therefore has deemed dry kibble is not of value any longer.  Like Max, who went through three meals of not getting what I had portioned off for training, she will learn to accept kibble as a reward at home because it is of higher value than no food at all.  She will not starve while I re-teach her to eat her kibble and make her easier to feed overall.

Once she learned to work for her kibble again, I will once again have a high value set of treats I can use when working in a higher distraction setting.  Until then, what she doesn't earn through training will not be given and what would normally be provided in her bowl at night will.

Emma is learning to eat - be it from my hand or a bowl - she needs this lesson.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	2	3	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	2	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	0	0	0	1
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	1	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0

6 Months, 3 Weeks: Training - Day 58

Emma continues to improve on
her loose leash walking and paying attention
to me instead of the items on shelves.

I woke the household up at 7 AM.  Emma was calm and patient when I got up and went about my morning routine.  It is so nice to have her finally adjusted to her crate when here.  I let her out and we went to explore the yard.  The warmer mornings are enjoyable and I get a chance to really enjoy watching her play and cavort about the yard.

I had expected Jack this morning, but his owner was having a high pain day and called to inform me she wasn't going into work.  We had a brief discussion about his lesson plan for the day and how, on a high pain day, to address training.  I believe this whole day together will be great for both of them.

Emma was in high spirits this morning and even let me take the scissors to her single dangling strand of hair that kept dropping into her right eye.  She'll get to go to Home Depot with me today to shop for grass seed after I have my appointment this afternoon.

I have found training with moist dog food on her kibble is not only messy but hard to deliver a single kibble or drop it so she hears it on the floor.  As a result, I have removed the moist food from her kibble when training and only add it when I give her the remaining food for the day in her bowl.

Since I was up and alert by the time the children lined up at the bus stop I grabbed her treat pouch and took her outside to child watch.  She barked when she saw them, but the moment she heard me click she turned and gave me full focus.  Amazing how focused she can be now.

We walked clear to the gate with under the breath barks but no out of control over the threshold behavior; that is until Tiffany and her new best friend started to cross the street toward us.  I told the kids to please stay away, I was working on Emma being under threshold so she would be okay with them and they stopped and backed off.  I think tomorrow I'll be able to take her out of the fence and start Level 1 behaviors with the children across the street - I just need to ensure the children don't walk toward us when I am working with Emma.

I started her training in the house and she's doing the "I don't want THAT for training" spit the kibble out behavior.  I told her that was fine, it was what I was offering today and simply stopped the training.  I figure by mid-day she'll be hungry enough to eat cardboard and accept the kibble as the reward for training today.  If not, she may find herself very hungry tonight by bedtime.  I need to reset her to accept low value foods for treats so when I bring out the high value foods they are of a value I can use in high distraction locations.

She'll not starve or suffer for a day of not getting a lot of food and will learn to accept the food offered her without becoming a picky eater.  This is an important lesson for her entire life - I have a picky eater and when she got sick I found getting her to eat became a energy draining challenge.  I do not want this for a perfectly healthy dog - Emma can learn to eat what is offered now.

Today's Lessons:

Retrieve

Emma is working on Level 3: Step 1 Retrieve.  In this step Emma is to open her mouth and take a pencil or other similar object into her mouth.  I am at the very beginning of this lesson and so am clicking and treating for any interaction with the pencil which uses her nose, mouth, tongue or lips.

She was actively working on the pencil, but not accepting the reward I was offering.  After about a minute of trying to get her to engage in the game I gave up and went to work with Max.  I will continue to work on this step throughout the day and work on getting her into the game.

I returned to working with her for a second session and after a bit of play and tossing treats around the room for her to chase she finally started eating the kibble.  She's uncertain what I want with the pencil, so she's shutting down a bit.  I will continue to work with her just touching it and accept any movement to take it as a bonus until her confidence with the pencil grows.

I did a third session with the pencil and she again was reluctant to eat until we played a bit of toss the treat.  Once she started eating we worked at just touching the pencil with her nose.  I am not using a clicker for this exercise, but a marker word so that I don't deafen her when I click the clicker next to her head.  I am using a high pitched and excited voice which has helped her become more confident with the pencil.

I took a short break with our lesson because she was a bit tired after all of the work she put in figuring out the game I was playing.  When I returned to working with her a minute or so later she was more confident with her touches and I felt more teeth and lip action on the pencil as she touched it.

I will continue working this lesson today to build up her confidence and start her on retrieving objects for her boy.

Come

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Come.  Yesterday and today the weather has been warm and comfortable for me and I was able to spend extra time in the yard with the dogs.

All winter I have worked on calling Emma into the house from wherever she is in the yard.  At first we had to use the word "Puppy" to call her, even my son would stand at the door and call "Puppy Puppy" to get her to respond.  This worked fantastic and she was soon racing at full speed to use from the base of the ramp or front yard.

As she improved with her recall using the word puppy we started by saying her name and then calling "Puppy Puppy" to get her to recall into the house.  When she was responding to her name and looking at us we'd started to say, "Come" and she'd race to us.  This all worked great if she wasn't barking at some invader in the neighborhood, which could be a local barking dog or spotting a person in their yard half a block away.

When she was like that we'd go and get closer to her, get her attention and walk her into the house.  Slowly we built distance of recall while distracted and soon could call her off a bark fest when she started and have her race into the house.

This meant, over the course of the winter, she worked steadily on Level 2 Com at varying distances.  I have a very long yard, over 200 feet, and she will recall from the front to the very back, the back to the front and anywhere in between with and without distractions.

The past two days I have called her to me from 1 to 70+ feet away from me when I was in her line of sight and out of it and with distractions and without.  Her reward is my affection, which she loves, and release to go play some more.  Emma has technically passed Steps 1 and 3 of Level 2 Come, but has not progressed because I haven't tested this in new locations at this point.  I have also not called her to put on her leash.

With the improvement of the weather I will take her to the local playground and work on recall and putting on and off her leash and slowly work her to other safe locations where she can be off lead and I can work on recall.

I must admit, with the improvement of her recall over all, she is coming to me when I want to crate her, even if she doesn't wish it, and is coming to me when I call her all over the house.

Field Trip

Emma and I went to Home Depot tonight so I could buy some seeds for my garden and grass seed for my yard.  With four dogs running through my yard, one a German Shepherd, my grass has suffered serious bald patches.  I am also starting a new grass area for the dogs to play in and need the seed to start it.

Emma was very excited when we arrived and it took a bit of work to get her into the loose leash zone with me.  Once there we worked at her pace into the store.  Anytime she became over excited we stopped and worked to get her focused on me again before continuing.

Once inside I introduced her to the cart and worked with her walking beside me and behind the cart.  It was her first time, so I spent a lot of time with high rewards and high praise to keep her focused on me and behind the cart.

She did extremely well.  She worked in tight aisles and turned with the cart.  She didn't have a lot of fear regarding the cart, though some of the items on shelves worried her until we did a bit of LAT with them and continued.

She was able to do all of her Level 1 behaviors in the store and was very appropriate with the people there.  Overall, I would say she's advancing on her public access work wonderfully.

Tonight's outing was for a total of 30 minutes.

Observations

Emma has matured nicely in the past couple of weeks.  She is calmer and more focused when working.  Her excitement when going to new places is refreshing, since her tail is waving when working in a new store.  When she is worried about something or frightened she quickly recovers and turns to me for guidance, which is exactly what I want her to do.

She is able to handle the sounds of a busy store and enjoys the adventure of exploring it and doing her behaviors.  She can keep her nose to herself most of the time, except when people are passing.  Her natural friendliness tends to drive her to greet everyone she meets.

In stores she doesn't bark or react to people, even children, any longer, but does when in the neighborhood.  Today she was able to watch children play a few houses away before we left for our field trip, but couldn't handle the neighbors being out when we returned.  It is actually a sign that she was a bit over tired and should probably do a short trip next time.

I am very pleased with her progress and look forward to next week when I can schedule more outings with her in new locations.

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	2	3	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	2	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	0	0	0	1
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	1	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0

6 Months, 3 Weeks: Training - Day 57

Emma knows how to fit in the box, but now I am trying to
get her to think outside of the box.

When I was out with Ronda on her field trip yesterday I bought a set of clippers for Emma.  Her eyes has vanished with the fur of her face and I needed to expose them so I could continue working on Focus.  I took the time to shave off the fur from the top of her nose and around her eyes so I could see where she was actually looking.

This morning I noticed that the quick job I did last night was a little crooked so I cleaned up her face and was very pleased when we worked on Focus I could see exactly where she was looking, whether I was sitting or standing myself when working with her.

It is important I can see her eyes when working with her so I know if she's paying attention to me or if she is paying attention to something right behind me or near me.  Dogs are fantastic at looking like they are watching you when in truth they are looking past you and at something of interest to them.  Eye contact, the primary skill we are learning this week, requires I see her looking me in the eyes.

She also got a bath today - since the blankets in the crate stunk and as a result so did she.  I want to take her out tonight, after Jack goes home, to work on Public Access and can't take a dog with a strong odor with me.

She truly enjoys having Jack present and when I am not working with her and it's not nap time she is mugging and playing with him.  He is so tolerant of her shark like behaviors and only occasionally tells her to knock it off by putting his foot on her back.  All of the trouble she's found before due to boredom or a need to play has become a thing of the past.  She is so tired after her romps with Jack she just collapses on my floor and snoozes.

This week has been fun and exciting for her and I believe she's going to be a tired but happy girl when she returns to her owners for the weekend.

Today's Lessons:

Focus

Emma is working on Level 2: Step 2 Focus.  Today I was able to raise the criteria for Focus and add duration.  With my being able to see her eyes and her having a new dog in the house, she was able to hold eye contact with me for 1 second several times and 2 seconds at least 5 times.  Emma will continue to work on this step until I can cold test it without her breaking eye contact with me.

Shaping

Today I worked on loosening Emma up a bit and encouraging her to offer behaviors when she becomes confused.  Currently she pulls from a small part of her learned behaviors to offer when she's stuck.  She will either sit or do a down and occasionally a target.  So, today I brought the box out and clicked for anything she did with it.  Once she got stuck sitting in it we worked on moving her feet and other things she could do while in the box.  She enjoyed the lesson and was more willing to offer behaviors when we did our field trip.

Field Trip

Emma and I went to Big R again today.  It was near closing and the store was loud with stockers working in aisles and vacuums running.  She exited the car without issue and waited at my side while I locked up.  It only took about a minute to get her mind into the game of walking loose leash with me and she walked loose leash and in the zone 70% of the time into the store.  Once in she became a bit excited again so I stopped her and got her to focus on walking with me.

Once in the store she again became a bit distracted, so I focused on getting her to stay with me and walk in the zone.  It was then we spotted the vacuum that was running.  She's a bit afraid of vacuums, so I spent time while the woman vacuumed about 15 feet away from us and did LAT with her until she calmed and sat by me without being fearful of the vacuum.

We then walked with her in the zone on a loose lead 80% of the time through the back of the store.  She was curious and happy to be there and quickly started watching where she was in relation to me when walking.

We got to the live chicks and ducklings and worked around them doing Sit, Down and Zen. She was amazing and didn't even try to sniff the chicks.  We then continued through the store with her walking loose lead and in the zone 90% of the time.  We exited the store with her in the zone and loose lead.  I am very pleased with her behavior.

She did try to sniff two people in the store.  One was a man passing us, which I didn't catch in time to prevent and the other was a store clerk we were passing.  I was watching the second time and backed up the moment she moved to sniff her.  When we went to pass her the second time Emma stayed focused and didn't attempt to sniff the clerk.

Emma is ready to visit new locations and continue working on Level 1 behaviors, but is not ready to go shopping when the trainer's attention is split between her and getting items.

Observations

Emma is a calmer and more focused dog now that she has an outlet for play.  She and Jack truly enjoy their time together and spend about one to three hours a day just playing together.

I do want to mention that Emma is further ahead in her training than the Levels state she is.  She has been practicing higher levels of Zen, Communication, Handling and other behaviors in her daily life, which means she'll quickly pass those behaviors when we officially focus on them.

In my home door dashing is not desired or allowed.  As a result, I teach any dog in my care the basics of waiting to be released to exit the house on cue only - even if the cue is something as simple as asking them to follow me.  I tend to put things in the recycle bin regularly and so leave the door open and expect no door dashing as I do.  I also crush cans and leave the door open with the dogs in the house so I can do it quickly and crush them.  I have recently started getting into the freezer with the door open and the dogs are expected to stay in, even when I am preoccupied and have my back on them.  All of this is Zen Level 3.

The same goes with leaving or entering a car.  They need a cue to exit or enter the van, even if that cue is my directing them by their lead with my hand.  No door dashing allowed.  All of this is for safety sake.  Emma dashed out of the van once and gave me scare at Safeway - thankfully Walter was able to catch her quickly and before harm came to her.

Emma waits for permission to enter the van, which she then does promptly with the cue Load Up.  She waits patiently for me to remove her from the van, which happens when I take her lead and tell her, "Let's Go" and will stay if I am reaching for Max and not her.

These are all items in Level 3 Zen.  Emma is doing very well on her Zen behaviors.  What she needs now is store shelf Zen and people Zen and item Zen when working in stores, which we'll continue to work on while doing her public access training.

Emma is progressing nicely and turning into a fine Service Dog in Training!

Level 1

	Zen	Target	Come	Sit	Down
Step	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed	Completed

Level 2

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	5	2	2	3	Completed
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	2	2	2	1	1
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Tricks	Communication
Step	1	1	1	Completed	1

Level 3

	Zen	Come	Sit	Down	Target
Step	3	0	0	0	1
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Jump	Relax	Handling	Retrieve	Communication
Step	0	0	0	0	0

Level 4

	Zen	Come	Retrieve	Target	Relax
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Focus	Lazy Leash	Go To Mat	Crate	Distance
Step	0	0	0	0	0
	Handling	Communication
Step	0	0