The little bit of training that we did get done, was playing with the Nina Ottosson DogTwister brain game. Bennett had never played before, so this was her first shot at it. It took her a while to catch on, and kept offering sits and downs to try and make the trays open. But after she figured out that she was allowed to bite and scratch at the toy, nothing was going to stop her! She also worked on her first "It's not your turn" down-stays. Since I train multiple dogs, first 2 and now 3, I like to be able to switch back and forth with them to give everyone a chance to play. Gio and Romeo both know how to hold down-stays while the other is working, so it is time that Bennett starts to learn this concept, too. So while Gio or Romeo were playing with the DogTwister, Bennett worked on down-stays. I was very pleasantly surprised by how well she did! I really do need to stop being surprised with this little girl. She was able to hold her down-stay on her own while I reloaded the toy, and only needed a couple of reminders and encouragement Cheerios while the other boys were playing.
Our people greeting and door manners lessons from Halloween seem to have done some good! The pizza guy only got one bark from her when he rang the doorbell, and she politely greeted him, allowed some scratches and coo's, and stood nicely at my side while I signed for the order. Of course, then she tried to follow him back to his car ... I can't really blame her, though. He was cute, had pizza, and fawned over the dogs. This girl has good taste!! Her recall was quite nice, and after I called her back and reminded her that she lived with me, not him, she came trotting back to the door.
I also trimmed paw hair today. After a brief struggle, she settled nicely and let me shape her paws and trim around her pads. Much less painful than our previous attempts at nail trims. Perhaps this is a sign of nail trim acceptance, too? I didn't press my luck with that today, though, and just stopped with the hair trim.
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