Day 40 - Exploring Rockland

During our training session this morning we worked on pivot to the leg using the lid to a tupperware container that was in the basement. It took Jedi a moment to generalize what we were doing to this new object, but then he was golden and figured out what we were doing. We also did some full pivots on the balance disc sitting on top of the paw pods to add some difficultly. This was the first time we've done that and the additional  movement definitely made this more challenging for Jedi. We finished up with some work on backing up the stairs -- Jedi can go three steps now. You can see that this maneuver takes quite a bit of core strength.

I had another 1:00 meeting today, which meant we needed another fairly quick training session for lunch when I got home from work. I opted to go outside and sit next to the table, this time rewarding for hind leg raises. I picked this object because I thought it would be a little too high for Jedi to do a full "bottom" on, but he's pretty good at hefting his butt in the air. I had to click early to catch just the leg lifts. Silvia has alluded to the fact that the pee trick will be in our next lesson. Jedi offered the hind leg lift early on when backing onto objects, but he has gotten too quick about lifting both back feet up to catch it with any regularity on a normal object now. Oddly enough it was always the left rear leg before, and now he appears to be focusing on the right.

We went out to play after my meeting wrapped up. It's been a while since everyone got to play frisbee, so we went with that today. Kizzy stole Jedi's little plastic frisbee, so I just switched him over to the little fabric one that I'd originally given to Kizzy. It doesn't roll well (at least in my tall grass that needs mowing), but he was happy to chase it if I threw it, too. No worries about him jumping up and catching anything yet -- Jedi hasn't quite made the connection between the eyes and mouth yet, if his reaction to tossing food towards him is any indication. He did manage to sink another tooth into my finger right at the edge of the nail for a nice bleeder, but again, that was totally my fault.

I dumped the pools out today in preparation of the mowing that needs to happen sometime in the next couple of days. I probably should have waited until after we'd played, because without the pools to jump into Jedi found the next best thing. I was answering an email this afternoon when I heard him making the most peculiar noises. The other dogs were in the house with me, so I knew he wasn't playing with one of them. I got up to see what he was doing and soon after he exploded into the house absolutely dripping wet -- from his head, at least. Best I can figure he dunked his entire head into the water bucket outside. He didn't tip it over or anything, it was still at least 3/4 full. He was pretty proud of himself for it. After rolling around like a loon for a few minutes he crashed on the couch for pretty much the rest of the afternoon.

For our outing of the day I packed up Jedi, Kaiser, and Kizzy and we ended up going to Rockland. Originally my intention was to go to West Salem for a softball game that I found posted online, but after I was on the road I realized that I'd forgotten to throw leashes (other than Jedi's) in the van and all I had was flexi leashes. I didn't want to go to a public place full of people with flexi leashes -- even if they are locked, I'm just not a proponent of them in public places. I'd also considered just driving to Rockland to go for a walk, so that's what we ended up doing.

I parked at Gaylord park and we walked around the housing division next to it. We encountered another off leash dog today. It was a yellow lab and his human was out front, which might be even more annoying because the guy did absolutely nothing to stop the dog. The dog was coming at us with his hackles up from his ears to his tail. I was walking backwards away from him with my dogs and telling him to get, and still the guy does nothing. I finally started to use my foot to push the dog away and finally the guy comes over and says something stupid like, "He's not my dog so he doesn't really listen to me." Well that's nice -- The dog didn't even have a collar on. If he doesn't listen, you might want to do something about that.

We made our way over to the part of town where I used to live. As we neared my grandpa's house I saw he was outside watering his lawn, so we stopped in and surprised him with a visit. We ended up staying there for about an hour! My grandpa really likes Jedi and the feeling was mutual. Jedi also liked playing with his hose, which he doesn't really get to do here because Secret completely monopolizes it. Considering how long we hung out in my grandpa's driveway, all three dogs did really well. Jedi got bored a couple of times and entertained himself by tugging on his leash or rolling in the wet grass.

By the time we got back to the van we'd been out nearly two hours! This probably explains why the dogs weren't too enthusiastic about posing for a group picture. Before we got back into the van we ran into a couple of girls at the park who asked if they could pet the dogs. Earlier we'd met a nice little boy who asked to the pet them as well, so Jedi got to meet a handful of new people today.

Because it was close to 8:00 by the time we got home, I was looking for a relatively quick and easy training session for dinner. I elected to just do another set of leg lifts at the table. I might need to find something taller, though, because the little stinker is going into more of a handstand already.

Ear update -- They're still up!