We did it! We have reached "Day 100" in Jedi's amazing, epic journey of having (at least) 100 new experiences since coming home with me in April. Jedi settled in pretty early last night -- he was probably sleeping on the couch by 8:30, so I guess his action-packed weekend at the trial affected him more than I thought. No worries, though, he was fully recovered by this morning and felt the need to make up for the lack of running over the last couple of days. After spending breakfast downstairs on the donut (made harder by putting the bone in front of it, so he was doing "push-ups" on and off the donut), Jedi kind of went nuts for a bit. I tossed the two stuffies that they had in the hotel onto the floor around 8:30 and it was nonstop craziness for about an hour.
Jedi crashed pretty hard on the couch for a couple of hours, but eventually he was up and playing again. Everyone else was still tired, so Jedi self-entertained by running laps up and down the hallway while tossing a toy around. With so much energy to burn, I decided to take Jedi downstairs and spend lunch on the treadmill. I figured it would be quick and easy, but it ended up being anything but. Seemingly out of the blue Jedi lost his confidence with the moving treadmill. After having him go on and off a few times I turned it on to 1.0 mph. Jedi jumped up but was unsure and jumped off. He continued to interact but was hesitant to go on with all four feet. I slowed it down to about 0.6 mph and we went straight back to the beginning. By the end he was fine, but it was interesting to witness this behavior. Perhaps he's entering a "fear period?" It was unexpected, that's all.
Originally I'd hoped to take off work today -- or at least a half day -- to do something "special" for hitting Jedi's 100th day. In the end, work is a zoo right now and I really couldn't get away for that long. I did manage to get away for a couple of hours, though, and we spent Jedi's 100th day doing what Jedi loves to do the most. Swim. We left a little after 2:00 and drove up to Lake Wazee. It was just Secret and Jedi along for the ride today, with the goal of bringing nothing home from the park other than water and maybe a little sand. The ticks can stay there this time!
I turned the other way upon entering the park in an effort to find us a new swimming spot. There are a lot of dive spots on that side of the lake! The first one had someone fishing, so I kept going so as not to disrupt him. The next spot had a couple of people and their dog, so on we went. The next spot, referred to as "The Wall" on the sign, just had a couple of young guys who looked like they were leaving the water area, so I parked there. As we made our way down to the water I was reminded of the sheer beauty of this lake and the crystal clear water. I'm not typically a fan of going into lakes and rivers past my knees, but something about this water calls to me and makes me want to swim. Granted the dogs aren't so picky, but it seems to call to them as well. :o)
There were some interesting rock formations in the water that I tried to avoid, but Jedi thought they were pretty fun to launch off of on the way to get his toy. The dogs had one "super extended" trip out into the water when Jedi was a super stinker and made a move to get Secret's toy while he was coming back with his own. He beat her, and Secret won't fight him for it, so she started swimming aimlessly around looking for something. Jedi tried hard to get them both in his mouth and eventually seemed to give up and come back, but somehow he ended up with the string handle of the 2nd one in his mouth, too. Only thing is, he didn't realize this and started swimming in circles looking for the second bumper. Oh Jedi... Eventually he dropped both of them and decided to come back with only the big one (Secret's). Secret was still out there swimming around and blessedly went over and got Jedi's baby bumper and brought it back. Dogs.... After that I threw their toys in opposite directions.
We stayed at the lake for about a half hour, but it was a half hour of good solid swimming with some long tosses. Jedi also made good use of the rocks to recreate some "Little Mermaid" poses. He really liked the rocks. I tried to get the dogs to notice the little fish swimming around at our feet (because yes, the water is that clear) but they were too interested in their bumpers. When it was time to go I opted to just grab Jedi's collar and lead him over to his leash. He was starting to look pooped but he put on the usual show to make it clear that he had no desire to leave. It got better as we moved away from the lake, but there's no way I'd take him off leash again when he's in that state -- he'd end up right back in the lake again. We wandered enough to let the dogs potty, but I was leery of having them spend any time at all in the long grass (ugh, ticks).
We were only home about an hour before it was time to leave for class. It's kind of nice that the two wildest puppies (lab and a doodle) show up first each week, so we let the three hooligans start blowing off steam a little early. Jedi did really well tonight and didn't have any snarky moments at the other puppies during the working portion of class, but I was sure to monitor him very closely and any time his attention started to divert I'd get him back to me -- he definitely has a "tell" of when he thinks another puppy is getting too close to his goodies. Jedi was a good demo dog for nail trimming techniques, and then we got to go outside to walk again. I handed Jedi over to a student again while I showed them something with their dog and he pretty much threw a fit. I did warn them in advance that I had no expectation that he would behave for them. Back in the training room, we wrapped up the night with all of the "puppy agility" stuff that we have, and Jedi did a good job of showing the obstacle criteria.
Jedi still had a little dinner left over when we got home, so I topped it off and we went into the bedroom to work on holding the leash while the other dogs ate. Jedi's default offering behavior lately seems to be going up into a sit pretty, and he's getting pretty darn good at it. He was also offering this downstairs next to the treadmill today and it was hard not to reward it since he's really just starting to hold this position on his own. He was throwing some pretty impressive sit pretties while holding the leash, so that's what I rewarded. He's offering it with his hands held high and everything. How fun! After dinner Jedi ran around the yard for a while throwing the stuffy around, and then he came in and crashed on the couch. It was a pretty action-packed "Day 100" for the little guy!
We did it! We have reached "Day 100" in Jedi's amazing, epic journey of having (at least) 100 new experiences since coming home with me in April. Jedi settled in pretty early last night -- he was probably sleeping on the couch by 8:30, so I guess his action-packed weekend at the trial affected him more than I thought. No worries, though, he was fully recovered by this morning and felt the need to make up for the lack of running over the last couple of days. After spending breakfast downstairs on the donut (made harder by putting the bone in front of it, so he was doing "push-ups" on and off the donut), Jedi kind of went nuts for a bit. I tossed the two stuffies that they had in the hotel onto the floor around 8:30 and it was nonstop craziness for about an hour.
Jedi crashed pretty hard on the couch for a couple of hours, but eventually he was up and playing again. Everyone else was still tired, so Jedi self-entertained by running laps up and down the hallway while tossing a toy around. With so much energy to burn, I decided to take Jedi downstairs and spend lunch on the treadmill. I figured it would be quick and easy, but it ended up being anything but. Seemingly out of the blue Jedi lost his confidence with the moving treadmill. After having him go on and off a few times I turned it on to 1.0 mph. Jedi jumped up but was unsure and jumped off. He continued to interact but was hesitant to go on with all four feet. I slowed it down to about 0.6 mph and we went straight back to the beginning. By the end he was fine, but it was interesting to witness this behavior. Perhaps he's entering a "fear period?" It was unexpected, that's all.
Originally I'd hoped to take off work today -- or at least a half day -- to do something "special" for hitting Jedi's 100th day. In the end, work is a zoo right now and I really couldn't get away for that long. I did manage to get away for a couple of hours, though, and we spent Jedi's 100th day doing what Jedi loves to do the most. Swim. We left a little after 2:00 and drove up to Lake Wazee. It was just Secret and Jedi along for the ride today, with the goal of bringing nothing home from the park other than water and maybe a little sand. The ticks can stay there this time!
I turned the other way upon entering the park in an effort to find us a new swimming spot. There are a lot of dive spots on that side of the lake! The first one had someone fishing, so I kept going so as not to disrupt him. The next spot had a couple of people and their dog, so on we went. The next spot, referred to as "The Wall" on the sign, just had a couple of young guys who looked like they were leaving the water area, so I parked there. As we made our way down to the water I was reminded of the sheer beauty of this lake and the crystal clear water. I'm not typically a fan of going into lakes and rivers past my knees, but something about this water calls to me and makes me want to swim. Granted the dogs aren't so picky, but it seems to call to them as well. :o)
There were some interesting rock formations in the water that I tried to avoid, but Jedi thought they were pretty fun to launch off of on the way to get his toy. The dogs had one "super extended" trip out into the water when Jedi was a super stinker and made a move to get Secret's toy while he was coming back with his own. He beat her, and Secret won't fight him for it, so she started swimming aimlessly around looking for something. Jedi tried hard to get them both in his mouth and eventually seemed to give up and come back, but somehow he ended up with the string handle of the 2nd one in his mouth, too. Only thing is, he didn't realize this and started swimming in circles looking for the second bumper. Oh Jedi... Eventually he dropped both of them and decided to come back with only the big one (Secret's). Secret was still out there swimming around and blessedly went over and got Jedi's baby bumper and brought it back. Dogs.... After that I threw their toys in opposite directions.
We stayed at the lake for about a half hour, but it was a half hour of good solid swimming with some long tosses. Jedi also made good use of the rocks to recreate some "Little Mermaid" poses. He really liked the rocks. I tried to get the dogs to notice the little fish swimming around at our feet (because yes, the water is that clear) but they were too interested in their bumpers. When it was time to go I opted to just grab Jedi's collar and lead him over to his leash. He was starting to look pooped but he put on the usual show to make it clear that he had no desire to leave. It got better as we moved away from the lake, but there's no way I'd take him off leash again when he's in that state -- he'd end up right back in the lake again. We wandered enough to let the dogs potty, but I was leery of having them spend any time at all in the long grass (ugh, ticks).
We were only home about an hour before it was time to leave for class. It's kind of nice that the two wildest puppies (lab and a doodle) show up first each week, so we let the three hooligans start blowing off steam a little early. Jedi did really well tonight and didn't have any snarky moments at the other puppies during the working portion of class, but I was sure to monitor him very closely and any time his attention started to divert I'd get him back to me -- he definitely has a "tell" of when he thinks another puppy is getting too close to his goodies. Jedi was a good demo dog for nail trimming techniques, and then we got to go outside to walk again. I handed Jedi over to a student again while I showed them something with their dog and he pretty much threw a fit. I did warn them in advance that I had no expectation that he would behave for them. Back in the training room, we wrapped up the night with all of the "puppy agility" stuff that we have, and Jedi did a good job of showing the obstacle criteria.
Jedi still had a little dinner left over when we got home, so I topped it off and we went into the bedroom to work on holding the leash while the other dogs ate. Jedi's default offering behavior lately seems to be going up into a sit pretty, and he's getting pretty darn good at it. He was also offering this downstairs next to the treadmill today and it was hard not to reward it since he's really just starting to hold this position on his own. He was throwing some pretty impressive sit pretties while holding the leash, so that's what I rewarded. He's offering it with his hands held high and everything. How fun! After dinner Jedi ran around the yard for a while throwing the stuffy around, and then he came in and crashed on the couch. It was a pretty action-packed "Day 100" for the little guy!
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