Tonight I am quite upset and disillusioned.

Tonight I am quite upset and disillusioned. The woman who runs the rescue place where we got Timmy has been looking at my progress updates and not only disapproves of my training methods, it seems that I'm over training him. But worst of all is that she is also turning the words I wrote last night to make it look like I have been ill treating him so much so they are sending out a representative on Saturday to do something, I'm not really sure what. Anyway if anyone else thinks what I wrote last night means I beat or ill treat him you are absolutely wrong. I've never raised my hand, voice or anything else to him in anger and as for the training it's all fun and games to both of us. He loves the interaction and he's allowed to quit whenever he wants, usually though it's me that gets fed up first.

 

Tonight we did some sit and stay, the sitting part isn't really training anymore though as he is now the best sitter in our house. We also played the LEAVE IT game. This is where I drop or place a treat on the floor and if he ignores it he gets a treat from my hand then at the end he also gets the treat from the floor. Neither session lasted more than a couple of minutes.

 

Today in the garden we have been lifting and storing Dahlia tubers.

 

Sit & Stay.

Today we have been doing some sit and stay training. We tend to do stuff in small amounts rather than prolonged sessions on one subject. I'm not a trainer so don't know if this is the right approach, it just feels right. He is very good at sitting when asked, especially if there is a treat to be had, very often sitting without even being asked. He is not so eager to stay though.

We have also done more work in the car. Up until now most of the car work has involved the back seat, mainly because he really didn't like the tailgate entrance to the car and also I am able to get on to the back seat and so encourage him to do so. Anyway now that he seems to have got the back seat under control I thought why not now move on to the rear compartment which is where he will be travelling along with Tess when we go places. The back seat is okay but we really like to keep that area of the car clean for people to use. So at feeding time tonight I showed him his dinner bowl before putting it in the rear of the car and then tried to get him to jump in but he didn't want to so I remembered what Cesar Millan once said which was to keep them moving forward so I walked him away and then turned back to the car and walked towards it and as he got close told him UP and like magic he jumped straight in the car and eat his dinner. After he finished I asked him to leave which he did but as I turned to get his bowl he jumped straight back in again so that was the icing on the cake for that lesson.

Apart from the usual walks the rest of the day has been spent helping me in the garden. We have been moving plants from the unheated conservatory to the heated greenhouses. He likes to help me either watching or following me around.

 

Below is a sit and stay moment for the camera.