Update on Bella at training

Above: Craig cuddling and taking a nap with Bella. This was taken 11/2008.

Above: She loves her daddy. She always lays on his chest like this...too cute!

Here are two updates from the trainer:

Sunday:

Bella is doing better at getting her nails clipped. Also, getting better at lying down. Sometimes, she wants to get very close to me before lying down. I just want her to lie down. She even did sits and downs in the rainwater late yesterday. At first, she didn't want to.

Right now, the schedule with water that I am on is that after Bella pees (either on paper or
outside) she gets a little water. She was good today.

She doesn't over lick me, has learned "off" and I am trying to say "off" before she goes on any throw rugs or small carpets.

Tonight, when I said "Stay here", she looked at me as if to say, "but, I will go this way, what will you do if I do that? Probably nothing, so I go "Ha", she got dragged back to me when I picked up the line I told her stay here and she did. Good girl.

She is sitting before we exit doors and enter. I want to control her impulses. If she thinks a lot, she might think "hmm, better not do this or that or the human will not be happy." So we want her thinking.

Tuesday:

Bella is good. She is so pretty.

Yesterday, I sat for two hours plus with her on potty pads. She didn't want to go on the pads unless they were inside her crate. I did finally get her to go poo on the paper and with me right there, but I was so tired that I finally walked her outside to pee and went to bed.

It has only been a week plus a day, and looking over the week, I am very impressed with Bella's progress overall. She does like to go back to her old ways as that is so comfortable, so we have to renegotiate and then she does it. This is pretty normal.

One example that is very common is that once the dogs get used to the "down" command, they sit and go straight into a down when I ask for a "sit". What I always have to do then is go back to "sit, sit, sit, sit, and on and on until that is good again.