Day 97 (Monday, January 3, 2022)
Costs for the Day are in the Table below:
Today, I woke up at 8:30am, had a cup of coffee and practiced Portuguese for 30-45 minutes on Duolingo.
We had setup a puppy training appointment with Nikki Jenkins of Nikki’s Canine Capers. (Cost: 30 Pounds) She has a long list of degrees and accreditations and attended the British College of Canine Studies. We did some training in the backyard for a couple hours with a particular focus on whining and chewing/biting. A very brief summary would be:
Whining
- Ensure we are taking Sydney out before she needs to go so that she does not start wining to be let out
- To avoid whining when she is put in her crate, prepare kongs/lick pads so that she is occupied. Make sure we take her out before she stops whining so use a timer.
Chewing/Biting
- If she starts biting/chewing on our hands/feet then Yelp loudly, stop interacting with her, and turn our back while walking away
- Anticipate the behavior and try to redirect her with chew sticks/ropes to chew on
Other
- Use a harness and not a neck collar
- Consider throwing treats vs. giving them by hand
- Continue to train Sydney to look at us when we call her name
- Continue to train Sydney on heeling in the back yard by dropping treats as we walk or using them as lures to guide her where we want her to walk
- Consider training Sydney to “go to your spot/mat”
- Continue training Sydney on “touch”
- Recipe for tuna/flour treats
- Review 3 Second Rule for training interaction/meeting with other dogs/people
- It is ok to give her a bath
- Trainer did not believe in “time-outs”
- On Training “Leave It” she recommended basically trading a high value treat for the other item/low value treat versus taking the item away from the dog which can sometimes create aggression.
After the dog training, we ate lunch and then I went for a run. Here is what I did:
Ran 3.17 Miles (1.6 Miles to Pets at Home and back), 100 push ups (40/40/10/10), 3 sets of 10-15 dips, 3 sets of 20 second L sit holds, 1 minute flutter kicks.
At Pets at Home, I bought Sydney a new harness, some treats, dog shampoo, and a treat bag (38.97 Pounds). Sydney has grown quite a bit and now fits the x-small harness and may even need just a small.
