Day 37 - Vet Visit & Puppy Class

I had a dentist appointment this morning and ultimately I didn't see any real value in bringing Jedi along for the ride, so he got to hang out in his crate for a couple of hours this morning. Miraculously I was actually able to get out of the house at 7:30 for my 8:00 appointment. I think that's the earliest I've left the house on a weekday since Jedi arrived, so apparently it's possible (lately I've been lucky to get to work in time for my 8:30 meeting). This morning we did more pivoting to the leg, paw target stuff (still not having any real luck in getting the other paw, but I reward it when he offers), and spoon/bowl.

I got home from La Crosse around 9:30. I had stopped at the hospital pharmacy while I was out and was able to find some Uni-Solve, so one of these days I should probably pull out Jedi's ear braces and redo them. The right ear looks like it might be thinking about falling out. The left is still in there pretty good. Maybe I'll tackle it in the next couple of days.

Jedi had a vet appointment at 11:30. It was just him today, so I thought I'd go ahead and just walk us over to the vet clinic. This is the first time Jedi has walked anywhere in our neighborhood, so I guess that counts as his new experience of the day.  :o)  It's also the first time I've taken him on a solo walk. As usual, he didn't care about any of this and was just happy to be living life. He took notice when my hoodlums at home started singing as we walked down the street (insert immediate regret at having the windows open), but he didn't let it stop him. He walked very nicely on leash, but he definitely still wants to cross all over the place.

At the vet clinic Jedi weighed in at 16 lbs today!! That's a nearly four pound gain in two weeks!! Insanity. He's filled out a lot lately, though, as yesterday during his bath I noted that he didn't look like a skinny drowned rat anymore. Hefty little hippo....  lol

We passed time waiting for the technician by playing with various toys out of the backpack that I'd brought along. Even when the tech came in, Jedi said a quick hello and then was right back to tugging his tennis ball on a rope (I should probably order more of those...). Our technician came well prepared with a can of squeeze cheese, which she sprayed in a nice long line on the floor in front of Jedi. This totally distracted him while he got his distemper booster. Genius. She then covered the top of the bordetella syringe with squeeze cheese and boom, down the hatch it went. Talk about a stress-free visit (much better than when he got the Lyme vaccine). I brought up the fact that he was sore all over from the last Lyme vaccination, so we are going to pre-medicate with baby aspirin when he gets his booster in two weeks.

Lunch training was outside today. I locked the other dogs in the house so that I could get some stuff on video without them in the way. We did pivot to leg, beep-beep, slamming the teeter, backing onto the dog walk, and sending around the cone. I haven't had a chance to edit anything yet. After this Jedi crashed for the afternoon, for which I was thankful because we had class tonight!

Jedi had a good night during both classes tonight. We had a new dog join us -- a 4 month old Great Dane puppy! Jedi wasn't sure what to think of her at first, but she was super sweet and he decided she was pretty cool. Jedi was pretty full of himself tonight. He has mostly glommed on to the puppy that is a couple of weeks younger than him (and about the same size). Jedi was also happy to spend time in laps.

Jedi was a great demo dog tonight. We talked about trading and being able to take stuff away from them. I didn't use a toy because I figured he'd just stare at it and wait for me to do something with it, so I opted to use a pig ear. He did everything he was supposed to do, so good boy! The class got to go for a walk outside tonight and Jedi did super on leash, especially considering I was walking backwards most of the time and going fairly slow. Our class ended with an introduction to restrained recalls. I had someone hold Jedi so that I could demonstrate. There was no screaming tonight, but they did get a kick out of how fast he ran to me when released. Good demo dog!

I kept Jedi out for the beginning of my next class. He got a little sassy while we sat on the floor and talked about grooming stuff -- he doesn't like not being the center of my attention. After that the class moved outside and he got to go on another walk around the neighborhood. Once we got back it was time to work on recalls. I know that this would get him excited, so I opted to put him in the van at this point to avoid that distraction. He stayed there for the remainder of the class. He still had a little bit of his dinner left over, so before we left I got him out and we did pivots to the leg in the parking lot.

Kizzy ran around with Jedi for a bit when we got home, but now even she is tired and has gone back to sleep on the couch. Jedi continues to run laps in and out of the dog door. Guess that vaccination didn't wear him out today!