Lessons From and For 4 Legs

This is actually RP from 8/24/11, but for a train wreck it was such an interesting type of success I wanted to get all of your input so am posting it today.

This was the day I started started “disappearing from view” by going out the front door and closing it, though not latching it, so I could use the door knocker. The first session of day 11 didn’t go well, so I changed the setup to make it easier and still accomplish the tasks.

The lip licks start at :44, :45 the first time I go out the door. The lip licks stay pretty frequent through this whole day, though mostly when I’m not there to see them.

At 3:02-:10 she shows more than the usual alertness to Nellie The Monster coming in the dog door.

At 4:08 she readjust on her mat to face the door more. I didn’t notice this till I watched the video. For some reason it’s just hard to observe the signs of stress when you disappear from view and can’t even see your dog!

At 5:24 she catches a scent of something and breaks from her mat. I had Magnus set up in the bedroom behind the baby gate in the bedroom and at 5:32 he starts barking. He rarely barks and this was his, “Holy crap!” Alert bark.

I was proud of Maizey for trying to come back to her mat at 5:35, but whatever got them both going was still too stimulating and she can’t settle. Though at 5:48 she comes back to her mat and lays down when I cue settle.

I thought he may just settle himself, but when he didn’t I thought I’d let him out and see if he would settle with us. I was planning on just finishing the day very easy, but instead he cruised right out the doggy door. That’s my bad for not remembering it was still open.

I was very impressed Maizey stayed on her mat for all of that and even laid down at the end.

He really set up a ruckus outside and I thought I better see what was up with him so at that point I stopped day 11, went and got him and set them both up to do day 1. At that point I really wasn’t sure what to do, but wanted to save this train wreck somehow.

So what do you think? What should I have done differently? Do you see anything I’m missing? It will be interesting to see how it goes today after I get back from vacation. As mentioned, the plan is to back up and do day 10 again with the setup I used for session 3 of day 11. Have any better suggestions? I’d love to hear them!