We've taken a couple of weeks off, left her with a dogsitter (her class instructor), taken a trip, and the rest ofthe time done pretty much nothing more than put her food dish on the floor. Now it's time to get back to work.

The first time we went on a driving trip, she was basically an untrained little hooligan. Everything I did with her involved physical control of a friendly but wild animal. This trip told me a lot about how far she's come. She certainly wasn't as well-behaved as Scuba, but she wasn't a hooligan either. I didn't think much about whether the leash was loose - it just was. Didn't think much about whether she'd go in her crate or be quiet in there, she just was. Didn't think much about housetraining or chewing or yapping. So I'm thinking we're having a great trip with an almost-adult young dog, when BAM, she has a crisis. On the way from the house to the car, we meet the next door neighbour shoveling snow.

He's a friendly guy, and Stitch thinks she's going to love him - until she hits that can-just-reach-him critical distance, at which point he apparently grows horns and the shovel turns into a pitchfork. She growls and ducks behind me. She really WANTS to meet him. She tries to cross that 2' threshold several times, but she just can't get across it. Fortunately for my sanity, Scuba had the same crisis at the same age, and so far Stitch's is a pretty tame one compared to Scuba's. So, I'll keep it in mind and not put her in that position again until she can handle it.

We get back into the swing of things by spending a meal on basic cues. She starts by offering me Sits. I click and toss the treat away so she can get it and offer me another sit. X10, then I remind her of the cue X20. Then we move on to Down, and then to Stand, starting each from scratch. Then we spend 50 mixing them up, Sit from Down and Stand, Down from Sit and Stand, Stand from Sit and Down.

The next meal, I want to work Scuba first. I put Stitch in the dog room. Oops. Scuba's finished her whole meal by the time Stitch shuts up.

The next meal, I put Stitch's mat down 10' away from my chair. She runs to it and plunks herself down on it. c/t X10. I start working Scuba on basic cues, and Stitch stays on her mat. I'm doing the same run of position cues with Scuba that I did with Stitch, and Stitch stays on her mat. Stitch gets a treat when Scuba misses a cue and when I get a new handful. I have to think about how to transfer her great Mat duration, where Stitch is exercising self-control, to behind-a-door or in-a-crate where she's BEING controlled. I think I'll move her crate into the living room where she can watch me working Scuba.

Now we spend a meal on that door-screeching behaviour. I get the dog dishes filled and put Stitch in the dog room behind the closed Dutch door (bottom half of a door only). Read a book for a while until she shuts up. Then I toss five kibbles over the door. In the ensuing 2 seconds of silence, I hand Scuba one kibble and toss another five over the door. We work X20 on one-for-Scuba and five-for-Stitch. X10 on two-for-Scuba and five-for-Stitch. X5 on three-for-Scuba and five-for-Stitch. Hmmm, she seems to have figured out that she's working just like Go To Mat rather than being unfairly trapped behind a door while food is happening. In the next 10 reps, we get to five-for-Scuba and three-for-Stitch. From there on, I start asking Scuba for positions and leaving Stitch with nothing for up to 10 seconds with no noise out of her. By the end of the meal, Stitch is getting three to five kibbles tossed over the door when Scuba misses a cue - maybe every 30 seconds or so. Job well done.

It occurred to me during the holidays that, as a clicker dog, Stitch isn't used to being grabbed or shoved around, so the little bit of her supper remaining I spend on playing the Come Game with a variation. I have to grab her by the scruff of the neck or the leg or the throat and drag her toward me an inch or so before she gets the click (tile floor, not a big deal). She thinks this is a dumb game but what the heck, if there's food involved she's OK with it. Before we're done I discover that I'm also teaching her to come to a hand with snapping fingers in order to be grabbed. Good idea, wish I'd thought of it...

Another meal on door Zen. I put her on the opposite side of the Dutch door and work with Scuba for three minutes. Stitch is totally quiet. I lean over the door so she can see me, give her a couple of kibbles, and tell her what a good girl she is. She throws herself at the door, then smacks herself in the forehead and Sits, staring at the door, so I open it.

Then I put her Mat down 8' from the couch and work Default Dog again - Stitch on her mat gets a treat whenever Scuba misses a position cue. Both are very good. Scuba's kibble is bigger than Stitch's, so she's finished first. Then Stitch and I play positions. She's better at this than Scuba. I didn't put many things on voice cues for Scuba - mostly situational and body language cues. I'm going to do better with Stitch.

Now that we seem to have solved the door-screeching problem, we can get back to the Levels. We haven't worked on going around a post for a while. My posts are all buried outside under 3' of snow, so I use a stool instead - a new "post". It takes her X15 to remember how to go around the post (she remembers sooner than that, but frequently stops to offer my a Down). Once she's back in the groove, we finish the meal with the stool about 12' away from me and the treats an a dish on the island.

When we're done, I put her in her crate to test the 2-minute Crate. Argh. She stopped her yapping and carrying on so long ago, I forgot that she has to whisper little complaints for a minute or two after she gets in the crate. So it'll put the TV on for the rest of the day and put her in the crate for each set of commercials (this is an easy way for me to a) remember to do it, and b) time it).

I'm having trouble getting back into the swing of training after the holidays. I totally forgot about the crate-commercials thing. Anyway, we start breakfast with Stitch in the dog room while I work Scuba. We have a couple of random outraged squeals, but in general she's much better. I'm sitting far from the dog room, but I manage to get up several times to toss her a handful of kibble for silence.

When I'm done with Scuba, I bring out a small skateboard for Stitch. This isn't the tiny model we were working on before, but a toddler's board (Why do they make skateboards for toddlers? Don't toddlers have enough trouble standing on ground that stands still?). Not big enough for three paws on it, but I'm not so much interested in teaching her to ride a skateboard as I am in showing her that she can manipulate objects and that something moving under her paw is not a catastrophe. She extrapolates immediately from the toy board to the bigger one, and starts whapping it enthusiastically with both paws, moving it back and forth, doing wheelies, and generally not worrying about its antics at all, even when one end of it rears up, whangs her in the chin and then bangs back to the floor. We play 101 Things To Do With A Skateboard for half the meal.

Next I bring out her pink plastic paw target. This one's going to have to wait for warmer weather. She remembers it very well when it's on the floor and on the arm of the couch, but if it's going to go higher, we're going to have to wait for warmer weather. I try putting it higher up the wall and earn a remarkably deep toenail scratch on the wall for my efforts. Enough of that, we'll put it on bricks outside next time!

For the first part of breakfast, we work on silence in the crate. She's very good if she can't hear anybody moving around, poor when she can. I put her in her crate and go to the living room to work Scuba a bit. When the screeching's done, we go back in the dog room and I grind Scuba's nails, tossing a few kibbles in the crate whenever Stitch has been quiet for a minute or so. Then it's Stitch's turn. She comes out and I'm sitting on the grooming table chair. She wants the rest of her food, but she doesn't want to be lifted on to the table, so we work X20 on Sit in front of me. When she's decided that's safe, she puts her paws up on the table, so we work X20 on Paws Up on the table. Then I get a big handful of kibble and let her nibble with her paws up while I boost her back end up. The first time she ducks out and tries to figure out how to Paws Up on the table to get the food without me being able to reach her back end. Fortunately, I've got storage boxes blocking all other access to the table. Finally she gives up and comes back beside me and Paws Up on the table again. This time I boost her up with no trouble and feed her 20 kibbles, one at a time, just for being there. When she's comfortable, I lay her down on her side, work until she's relaxed, and then grind four nails with lots of kibble. Every time I put the grinder near her foot, she tenses the other front paw, remembers she's supposed to be relaxed, and relaxes. Pretty cute. Since I got my new very quiet grinder, I'm doing one paw on each dog about twice a week. which works out to a total pawnicure every two weeks, which is plenty.

We spend the rest of the meal on my biggest skateboard, which is still only half the size of a real one. She doesn't appear to notice any difference between this one and the toddler-size. As soon as the weather gets about -40, I'll go out and get some lumber to build her a boogie board with a tennis ball under it. That should get her through to spring when she sees her next teeter.

We had a good solid 30 second Watch when we finished Level 3, but that was before Stitch got good at 101. We spend one entire meal on Watch. Our big stumbling blocks are three seconds and 7 seconds. We work X70 on 1-second, 2-seconds, 3.. 1-second, 2-seconds, 3-seconds, 4... 1-second, 2 seconds, 3-sec... 1-second, 2 seconds, 3-seconds, 4-s... 1-second, etc. Another 70 to get past 7 seconds. She REALLY wants to offer me behaviours! Once we're past 7, we go up one second at a time to 16 seconds, then we go two seconds at a time to 26 seconds and the meal's over. I'd say the Watch was better than what we had a month ago, though shorter. There's no indication of whining. She really understands that it's up to her to do something I want to get what she wants.

A more active day today. My jumps are somewhere under the snow in the yard, so I make a jump out of two chairs with rungs and a cardboard tube of Christmas wrap. I tape the tube to the rungs, and while I'm getting my clicker, Stitch goes under the tube, bends it, and pops the tape. OK. A new tube, more tape, and this time I'm ready for her, I put a purse under the tube so she can't go under it. In three seconds she thinks of going around each end and threading through the chair legs, but I'm in the way. I click her for looking at the tube, for looking at the top of the tube, and then she thinks it might be a paw target. That would be OK if was a real jump, but my tube won't stand up to that, so I drop a handful of kibble on the other side of the jump and she pops over to get it. Bingo, she's got it. She cleans up the floor, then turns and jumps, c/t X5. The first time over was pretty ugly but the rest are clean and athletic. I take the purse out from under the tube and stand about 2' away from it on one side. She doesn't think of going under again, she knows the job, but the next two jumps are clumsy and she brushes the tube both times. The third one, though, is sweet again. We do another ten and quit.

Next we try Watch. I ask her to Sit first, and she's thinking about Stand from Sit, so it takes us a minute to get her settled. Then we go up from 1 to 5 seconds in 1-second increments, and from 5 to 30 in 5-second leaps. She's perfect.

Then I try the about turn with watching. Yuck, she's forgotten that completely. Standing still, she's great. As soon as I turn, she's scanning the floor for treats... isn't that a brown speck on the rug over THERE? Lots of work to do there!

No planned training this morning. Stitch picks her metal dish up and brings it to me first thing this morning. What can I do but dance around, put her breakfast in it, and give it back to her?

Wow, aMAZing evening! Scuba has an agility games night once a month. This involves going to a riding arena and hanging around with maybe 30 other beginner and advanced dogs and dog people for 3 hours, getting one or two runs in. I've thought this would be an excellent place to take the pup, and tonight was our first chance. Bearing in mind that Stitch met a monster shoveling his sidewalk last week, I'm not expecting to do much with her but sit in a corner, try to keep her from eating too much horse poop, and click her a lot for looking at other people.

Stitch has other plans. I walk her into the arena with Scuba for moral support while there are still only ten people there. She's excited about the whole event, not sure of herself but not scared either. She stops several times to just stand and stare across the room. Her tail isn't up, but she's standing foursquare and interested. So far, I'm thrilled. I've put a crate and my walker on one end of a line of chairs. I put Scuba in the crate, sit down, and start working Stitch. I start with Watch. It takes me five starts to get to five seconds (people keep coming in and walking behind me with their dogs and crates), then she's completely ready to watch me and we get to 15 seconds right away. Then we go through Sit, Down, and Stand as if we were working in our own living room. Then I give treats to several trustworthy people sitting next to me, and they feed her one at a time without touching her. A Toller puppy comes to visit, and when they're through the circle dance and small wrestle, Stitch turns and jumps on each of the people sitting near me. Holy cow.

I move my walker to a more crowded part of the arena, where Stitch cheerfully greets all kinds of people, talks to dogs, and wishes I would let go of the leash so she could really work the room. Her leashwork isn't impressive, but she COULD be using the leash to try to drag me back out to the truck, and she's using it instead to try to get closer to people and dogs, so I'm thrilled. Finally, I start clicking her for looking at other dogs and people without tightening the leash.

For fifteen minutes I put Stitch in the crate with Scuba, then took Scuba out to warm her up and get Stitch used to being alone in it. While she could see us, she whined softly. I turned the crate around so she could see others but not us, and she quieted down. I periodically opened the door far enough to drop a few treats in when she was quiet.

As a byproduct, Scuba's agility run was fast, enthusiastic, and excellent, since she was so happy to be doing something which didn't involve Stitch. Obviously we haven't dealt with the individual-male-alone-on-a-street-with-a-shovel-in-his-hand problem, but she hasn't generalized her response to humans-I-don't-know. What a great evening!

She brings me her dish again this morning, but I'm able to restrain myself. I just fill it and give her half of it. Then we work on SitStay. Perhaps she's been reading the book in her spare time. We go from 1 to 10 seconds in one-second increments, from 10 to 30 seconds in 3-second increments, and from there to 60 seconds we jump 5 seconds at a time. She makes one mistake.

I want to work on Watch, we haven't done much of that lately and I had really good watching last night. I realize that she's doing a 100% Watch all the time she's doing the SitStay, so I test it. Sure enough, 10' away, 30 seconds, 100% perfect.

Next the Stand from Sit at 10'. She doesn't have the concept of offering the behaviour at a distance without help, so I put her behind a barrier. She jumps the barrier. OK, she learns fast and has a good memory, but I tell her this barrier isn't for jumping. She doesn't jump any more but she clearly doesn't really believe me. I stand close to the barrier and ask for a Stand. "Oh THAT'S what we're doing!" she says, and stays standing. I ask her to Sit, she Sit-stands. No, Sit. Stands. We spend five minutes working on Sit again, and then I'm able to get the Stand from Sit. I move up to 6' away. Good stuff.

I'm planning on retrieving and building Watch up to 60 seconds, but opportunity knocks. As I'm getting out a dumbell, the washing machine starts to spin off-balance, making a huge banging noise, and jumping around (it's in an open closet in the kitchen. The Ghost In The Machine. I grab Stitch's breakfast, a clicker, and her paw target and sit down in front of the machine. By now it's shut itself off. I put the target on the washer - nyuh uh, that's a puppy eater. I put the target down low on the dryer - well, OK, as long as only her nose has to go that close to the monster. So I click for nose X30. Her body language is a little more relaxed, so I wait. She touches it six more times and then lies down, giving me Princess Paws and whining. I show her the target and click another 30 times. Then I wait. This time she touches once with her nose and then tries a paw. Good girl! I click paw X30, then turn the washing machine back on, on a quieter part of the cycle. Stitch goes back to offering a nose touch, and I click that X8 before she offers a paw on her own. Over the next 30, I move the target higher and lower, gradually inching it back over to the washing machine. When it gets there, it's a non-event. Finally I get the target high enough that for the first time she offers me a two-paw hit on it. X5, and we're done. Two birds with one breakfast - solved the puppy-eating washing machine problem AND found a place I can put her paw target without her scratching up my walls!

I have a frustrating evening session. We start with the dumbell, which she hasn't seen in quite a while. Two chin bumps and she takes it, holds it while I pet her, then runs to get it when I throw it. Great.

Move on to Watch. Now, she did this SO beautifully at agility two nights ago. Tonight she can't watch for ten seconds. I drop a treat and she's digging under a chair trying to find it, looking around the room. Finally I give up, put her out of the room, and work Scuba. When I bring Stitch back in, she's HOT to work, eye contact to 30 seconds right away, I start getting contact and turning, and she's the best she's ever been. She doesn't want to follow me when I pivot right, but I put my back against the wall so she can't duck around behind me, and eventually she figures it out. I drop several treats and a tiny throat-clearing is enough to bring her back before she gets them. So we ended well, but I feel grumpy about it anyway. Silly. It should be a good lesson in priorities for her and I should be happy about it.

I take Stitch to the vet to have a dewclaw removed, then come home and we both go to bed for the rest of the day. I've got the flu. Well, that explains it.
Being sick is good for thinking, if nothing else. I don't have the eye contact I want. I putter around the edges of it, getting behaviours, getting enough contact to squeak by the Levels, but I never settle down and work on it seriously. Today we do. I dampen the kibble so I don't drop so many. Then I sit down with Stitch and we work up from one second watching to 10 seconds, starting from scratch on each rep - 1, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4 etc to ten, then starting again at one. We do that X10. Then, from contact, I swivel a quarter turn in my chair and start again. Now we do 1, 1-2, 1-2-3, and then three somewhere between three and ten. Then, from contact, I swivel back and start again. We do that X10 and spend the rest of the meal on eye contact while I wiggle my treat fingers and wave them around. Anything that hits the ground while I'm training gets covered by my foot so she can't get it. By the end of the session, she doesn't want to be within 2' of anything that lands on the rug.

Now I'm training again. Duh. Haven't I said a thousand times that if either of us is frustrated, I'm not explaining things properly?

Another session on up-to-10-seconds eye contact, then pivoting slightly and starting again. Eventually I stand up and do it all over again from that position. I push my luck by pivoting further, but she handles it. She's still dropping her eyes when I pivot right, but she's not losing me. I need to do a lot more of this.

We finish this session with some retrieving. It's terrific, she runs out to get the dumbell, picks it up, brings it back, gives me a good front, and holds it until I ask her to release it. Excellent.

Stitch starts another set of classes this morning. Canine Fun 101. She's well above the level of this class, but it certainly won't hurt her to practise in the company of dogs and people, and in a new training area. There'll be some contact and tunnel work later, but this week we start with the basics: loose leash walking, eye contact, Zen, and targeting. We get there early, sit down and do some contact and holding the dumbell. Then she greets some people and puppies, but only with a loose leash. I'm happy, I could go home right now. In class, she's good with the LLW. Eye contact is superb except when we're near one person, who happens to be a conformation handler. Her voice is nearly irresistable. Stitch tries hard but has a lot of trouble keeping her eyes from darting over to the handler. She's not leaving, though, and her eyes keep coming back to me. The rest is easy stuff. I'm very pleased with her. She has a good experience, and a loose leash all the way out to the car.

We work again on eye contact, building from one to twenty X5, then slowly turning in my chair and clicking when she can follow without losing my eyes. This means she's sidestepping, her eyes locked on mine. It's coming MUCH better now that we've backed up to work on the base behaviour. One to 10, pivot, click, then one to 10 and pivot again, X10.

Then we practise nose-targeting my hand. And the other hand. A llama grooming tool, then both my left and right feet in various places.

A few days of really concentrating on the eye contact pays off. I was feeling like we'd Never-Never-Never get to heeling, but today we make a good start. We begin with touch (I found my touch stick) to the left, to the right, up high, down low. Then I ask her to follow the stick around rather than waiting for it to appear in position. She gets that right away, and moves quickly to the end of the stick as well (I did a lot of work with the grooming tool yesterday on touching only the end). Then I use the stick to lure a spin. She understandsl if I work in thirds - one-third of the way around X5, then two-thirds X5, and finally all the way around. Then I start in the other direction. While I'm explaining the first third, she offers me a couple of spontaneous spins in the original direction, but by the fifth time, she gets it. Later I give a hand signal for each direction and she gives me two proper spins. Training dogs is SO difficult!

We're having such a good session I'm afraid to try heeling, but here we go. Eye contact X 10, building from one second to 15 in 2-second intervals, and then ask her to move from side to side in front of me following my eyes as I turn my head. Then I ask her to Sit and Stay. I move into heel position and click X30 for her making eye contact from that position. This is new, she's never been there before, but she trusts the SitStay, and she likes getting clicked for "doing nothing". Next start to turn slowly to my right. I have to encourage her to come with me, she's convinced she should stay. She comes when I call her, and finds my eyes right away (unbelievable! Never-Never-Never!). I let her hold my eyes as I turn a half circle, then click. Next time I turn the half circle, click for contact there, and then run two steps away from her in a straight line. She follows slowly, and I click when she catches up and finds me eyes again. We go back and do it again. The third time, she runs with me. She's looking ahead when she runs, but she's eager to come. Tomorrow we'll make the straight run with contact. In fact, the third time (she's obviously a three-times dog) she runs out to the end of the straightaway instead of following me through the turn!

I know dogs are much more aware of positions in rooms and orientation than we are, but I've never worked a dog so "into" the big picture and so blase about fine details. When she was younger and I tried to get eye contact and turn, she immediately forgot about the contact and decided she was supposed to run around me. Now she forgets about contact and runs to the end of the straightaway where the treat was delivered. I'm going to spend a great deal of time on eye contact with this small person!!

We have a session that feels like working with a trained dog. We start with eye contact, she's willing to go 30 seconds without any workup at all. Then we do the target stick. She touches it left and right, chases it all around me, and spins left and right with a slight indication of the stick. She's reluctant to jump up to touch it, assuming I mean Sit, but we work through it quickly by getting her to come forward to touch it, then raising it slightly more each time.

We go back to eye contact. I sit her in Heel position and, for the second time, click her a billion times for merely sitting there making eye contact. Then I start turning right and pivoting left. She's so with me that she's beating me to the straightaway after the right turn. I have a decision to make - do I accept her total attention from the corner of her eye while heeling? Or do I go for 100% eye contact? Eye contact is a lot flashier. Attention would be easier, she's giving me that already. Moving and watching seems to be very difficult for her.

When I pivot left, turning my shoulders and face too far to the left, she swings so far toward Heel position that I can easily turn back to my right and have her fall into the correct position. When I walk forward and she comes too far out of position, I pivot left again and she moves easily out of my way and back towards Heel position. Thrilling.

Maybe I'm in shock. I ask her for a SitStay, go 15' away (that's all the space I have), and stay away 60 seconds. When I return to her, I walk four times around her, clicking every quarter turn and planting the treat right in her face so she doesn't have to move to get it. Then I ask for a 60 second Down and repeat the process. She sits up once when I try to walk around her on the return, then stays down until I release her. Holy cow.

We go to PetsMart and work on Loose Leash. She makes several errors, one going toward another shopper, one just gaping and she misses a turn. She recovers quickly from each and passes all the toys, chewsticks, and cookies with no trouble. I drop a kibble and she watches it fall, then looks at me. Several more people she passes with no problem. I'm using a special blend of dog kibble, cat kibble, and nuked hot dog but still, I'm thrilled with her behaviour. I spend $30 on toys - not a reward, of course, since by the time she gets them we're back in the car, but an expression of shock and appreciation.

An interesting breakfast session. I found a longer target stick yesterday. I ask her to touch it a couple of times, she does. X5. I move it slightly away from her, and she tells me she wants to work Go To Mat. I move away from the mat and present the stick again. She stays on her mat. I give Scuba a kibble, and Stitch comes over to touch the stick. X2 and she lies down on the floor with her head down (her standard Go To Mat position). Won't come when I call her, won't get up to touch the stick. Hmmm. An interesting theory, small but mistaken child, that holding your breath will get you what you want. I give Scuba another kibble and put the stick and Stitch's breakfast back in the pantry, close the pantry door, and do some laundry.

Five minutes later, Stitch is giving me a to-die-for stare (or glare, depending on your interpretation) and following me all over the house, occasionally clipping my heels with her paws. Finally I ask her if she's hungry. She says she is, so I go get her dish and the stick.

Boy, can she touch that stick! She can chase that sucker all over the living room. X15.

Now I WANT to work Go To Mat, but I don't think that would be a great idea for this morning. Instead we do bullseye. She's dead on, her toes almost brushing mine, with her eyes glued to mine. X30, four in a row I toss the kibble behind her so she can come front again. Five and six I toss behind me through my legs so she can go through, then come around to find front again. Boy, can she front!

As long as I've got this lovely contact, we work on the heeling about turn and step. She's a little slow, but she's not being sluggish. I TAUGHT this to her slowly, so I'm going to have to speed it up soon. Perhaps on a tile floor the day before I leave on vacation is not the best time to ask for speed. We also do some left pivots and work on getting the lateral motion back in her rear end. She's trying hard, just not quite sure what I want.

Then we do a bit more work on her Sit Stay while I return around behind her. I ask her to Sit, tell her Stay, walk out a couple of steps in front of her, then come back to her. One kibble for stay-as-I-approach, one for stay-with-me-beside, one for stay-with-me-behind, one for stay-as-I-come-around-the-corner, and several for stay-with-me-in-Heel-position. X10. Then we move on to one kibble for approach, one for behind, and one for Heel position. X10. Then we do three in a row with no help, just c/t for staying while I return around behind her into Heel position.

And that reminds me of Stand Stay, so we do five more Stand from Sit, then I ask her to Stay. She does. In fact she looks like she knows what I'm talking about, so the second time I ask her to Stand and Stay, I walk all the way across the kitchen to get some more kibble, and she stands. And I walk all the way back and give her a couple, and she still stands. We do shorter Stand-Stays X5, and I'm so impressed I quit and give her the rest of her breakfast free.

Oh my for holy cow. Finishing a Level is SO rewarding/exciting/invigorating for me. Then looking at the next Level and seeing that the behaviours she already knows will work smoothly into the harder behaviours in the next Level. Then noticing that she might be ready to test for some of things at the new Level, and suddenly we're not BEGINNING the new Level, but partway through it already.

Stuff we've checked off already: Come 40' through milling dogs, Finish - swing with handler pivoting left, Handling muzzle & teeth by handler, LLW 80' through milling dogs, Floor Zen 30 seconds, Retrieve - 2 objects in mouth, 1 metal, Down from Stand with no treats, Sit from Down with no treats. 101 Things To Do With A Box - she was useless at this 2 weeks ago, but we're playing it in our trick class and she's getting good at it. Still not very inventive, but I'm comparing her to Scuba. Yesterday in class Stitch was turning her box over and over, and balancing on it, which wasn't easy because it isn't a very large cardboard box and it jiggled a lot with her weight.

What we do this morning (in a veritable flurry of enthusiasm):

Ask her to go in the crate, close the door (*I* close the door, in case you were wondering), leave her for 2 minutes in utter silence. PASS.

Ask for Eye Contact, she gives it to me brilliantly. X10, then I start pivoting right. She looks down the first time and finds me again when I stop. I click that, then click X5 for Contact and turn again. This time she holds my eyes as we turn X10. She's doing so well at that I try turning and taking a step for the first time. No sweat. In the space where we're working, I can only go about 4', but she's acing it. X10. While we're playing pivot, I do some left pivots and click her tail for moving faster than her head. She's forgotten this a bit, she's holding contact and stopping dead when I stop, but we play around with it a bit and it starts to come back. X10.

I ask her to follow a very short stick target. She can follow it well for about a foot. When it becomes "obvious" that I'm leading her around me, though, (trying to get some distance on it), she forgets about it and finds me eyes. Dang, she's broke now! Puppy puts too much effort into making contact. We work X20 on short follows.

I ask her for Stand from Sit - the behaviour that, three days ago, I'd NEVER NEVER NEVER get. She was good at it yesterday but that was the first time so I'm not expecting much. I give her a voice cue alone once just to prove she doesn't have it, and she pops her back end up. Wow! We work on it again and again, I move back gradually to 10' away from her, I sit down and stand up and turn my back. Accuracy is 100% on a voice cue alone. X20. I'm terribly impressed

To finish off, possibly just because she's done so unexpectedly well at Stand from Sit, I ask for a Sit, tell her to Stay, walk 20' away, and do a 1 minute Stay. She stays. Not like "what are we doing here", not like "I'd rather be somewhere else" but a nice, solid, watchful, working-duration-to-make-a-click Stay. No thought to lie down or stand up (which I was expecting since we'd just worked on that). She holds the Sit all the way back and ALMOST holds it as I go around behind her. I work around her a couple of times with a kibble in her nose to hold her and she starts to see that she can stay even when I'm behind her.

What a great morning. What a great puppy.

Supper begins with a Sit-Stay and a Recall with a crummy Front. Good Sit-Stay and very nice fast Recall. X2, then we work on the Bullseye front diagram X 20. She's nice and close 90% of the time. When she doesn't get clicked, though, she's developing a default lie down. I don't get the impression this is a quitting-type lie down, but actually a default behaviour. I need to click a lot for motion behaviours inthe next month, but considering what a wild child she was before, I can't say lying down as a default is a bad thing.

To get her up and going, we do 30 heeling Eye Contact from in front with a turn and walk one step every fifth time. Then left turns X10. Her contact is coming along very well.

We do some retrieving with the wooden dumbell, and throw in a couple of Stays while I toss it, a Get It cue, a nice clean pickup, fast return, and only slightly crooked front with an excellent hold. X15.

To finish up, I ask for a couple more bullseye fronts and she loses her mind. If I blink she Stands. If that's not right, she Downs. I CANNOT get her to Sit for more than half a second without her popping up into the Stand again. She is totally disconnected from voice or hand cues. "You MUST want a Stand. I INSIST!"

Finally I cross my arms, look at the ceiling, and count to a hundred while she offers me everything she can think of. Finally she stops and I ask for Sit X5 and a retrieve, and then we stop. Goofy child.

Before breakfast I read through Level Four. One thing seems excessively easy - Retrieve. One thing seems excessively difficult - Stand from Sit, 10' away from me, on one cue, and with no food.

We start with testing the retrieve. I have two objects - scent articles - one wooden and one metal. I hand her the wooden one, she takes it correctly in her mouth and holds it. Good girl. I hand her the metal one. After licking it twice (in case there might be Cheez Whiz on it, I guess), she takes it and holds it correctly. Retrieving done.

Now the Stand. She has a very good Sit from standing up OR lying down. I got the sit from down by luring it enough times for her to be familiar with the plan, then asking for it and gently bumping her front foot with my toe. Not exactly pure shaping, but it worked. Another thing I tried was asking for the Sit and then leaning slightly toward her. Same result, and she seems to have a good solid spot in her brain for "Sit from Down".

I start the Stand by luring it a few times with her nose going down/back to her throat. She's very good at this and her back feet pop out into position. The first few times she sits again as soon as she gets the click. The fifth time the principle of laziness takes over and she starts remaining standing. At this point, I start giving the cue to Stand (Outstanding!), wait a half second, then tap her foot with my toe. X14 for the first spontaneous Stand after the cue. I work once giving her the cue from Sit, then X5 giving the cue while she's already standing, then ask her to Sit and start again. Once in a while I throw in a Down, then a Sit from Down, then the Stand from Sit. It's great. Her success rate is up around 90%. Very nice beginning. The Level Four Stand no longer looks impossible. Or even particularly difficult. What a great puppy.

The further we get into a trained retrieve, the more fun her play retrieves get. Up to this point, she has always dropped what she was carrying if I called her. Today she brings it with her. Further, she has picked up several things specifically to bring with her when she's coming in the house or into another room.

We have a large hard rubber ball that she's been a bit leery of when it's moving. This morning she chased it as it bounced away from her, and caught it in mid-bounce. Shocked, I threw a fuzzy toy up in the air, and she caught it as well. Now she's picking up the rubber ball and dropping it, again and again, watching it bounce. She's made a big step in manipulating her environment.

Stitch has her trick class tonight. I've nuked a couple of 5 yo freezer-burned wieners, cut them up and put the bits in the go-to-class container along with Kibbles & Bits and her regular kibble. This mixture is a HUGE hit. She pays total attention for 50 minutes. After that she's still able to watch, sit, and come, but her higher thinker is retired for the night.

Before class starts, the instructor and I play the Come Game with her. When the rest of the class arrives and while they're still galloping around before class starts, I walk her twice the length of the room on a loose leash with the other dogs randomly going past. And that finishes off Level Three.

When I left home last week, I was thinking of her as a fluffy little baby puppy. If I took her out, it would be a wrestle and a major event requiring preparation, concentration, and giving up a lot of MY priorities in order to take the puppy with me. Being gone for a week has given me the chance to see her as she is today with new eyes. She's a young dog lacking somewhat in experience but with a good handle on a lot of skills.

I'm out of town for a few days. The next morning the alarm rings and I'm still groggy but I've got that hair appointment I didn't get to last week, and Stitch is invited. Argh. I haven't touched her in a week and now we're going to a place she's never been before where she has to behave pretty darn well. I'm NOT looking forward to this.

She's excited when she realizes that she's going somewhere. I stuff her breakfast in every nook and cranny of my clothing. She sits to have her collar slipped on and walks very nicely on a loose leash to the car, then jumps into the car while I'm getting her soft crate into position, back out, and into the crate. So far so good.

She's normal until she gets out of the car. Wow, city sidewalk! Her country bumpkin jaw is hanging down. There's construction nearby with lots of banging and air nailers and a big tarp flapping in the breeze. She bumps the end of the leash maybe 10 times in half a block, and she's MUCH too busy gawking to be able to eat anything. Still, the leash errors ARE just bumps, not yanks or pulls, and she understands that she's walking with me - or sometimes under me - rather than behind me or back in the car. She's not secure, but it really appears to be a bumpkin-gawking situation rather than a fear problem.

She drops to the ground when she realizes I'm going up 10 steps to the front door. I go down and offer her a handful of kibble. She decides it might be time for some breakfast and immediately feels good enough to attempt the stairs. They're very difficult stairs - totally carpeted, wide and shallow. A blind Chihuahua wouldn't have trouble with them, I don't know what made her think she couldn't handle them, but with a dozen kibbles under her belt, she hops right up.

Another bumpkin moment in the waiting room, but they're all dog lovers here and I'm handing out kibble to people as fast as I can. Pretty soon she's flossing teeth and washing chins for everyone in the building. Finally everyone goes about their business and she settles down beside my chair with a loose lead and watches the world go by. Everyone is amazed at how well behaved she is (yes, ESPECIALLY me!). She walks back to the car on a loose lead and bops up into her crate.

On the way home we stop at the vet's for some pills for Scuba - a place she already knows she likes. I couldn't have asked for a better outing.

For supper we do some retrieving. We start with taking it from my hand and holding it while I hold it and let go. I try handing it to her when she's a little way away from me and having her bring it back to me, but this doesn't click with her. She stands and looks at me, holding the dumbell. When she decides to come to me, she spits out to the dumbell to walk.

I try tossing the dumbell 5' away from me. NOW it makes sense. With no more discussion, she runs out, picks it up, brings it back, and holds it while I reach slowly for it. She doesn't release it until I click.

I toss it here and there and way over THERE and she runs to get it and brings it back. After about 5 reps, she starts giving me a very nice Front with a sit and holding the DB until I click. Lovely.

I ask her to retrieve a canvas bumper with a rope attached, but that REALLY doesn't make sense to her. I settle for doing some plain holds with the rope. I get a tiny tug that could be turned into a good pull later, but for now I ignore it and just click the hold.

It occured to me while I was away that I haven't done any more Comes with her than the easy stuff in the Levels, and that her Come is about the only thing that I'm not exceptionally happy with. She almost always comes, but always with a look in her eye that says she's made a DECISION to come. I want her to just COME and be glad when she arrives.

All day I've been using up the remains of her breakfast that I didn't use at the hairdresser. I wait until she's busy rummaging in the bedroom or some other place she doesn't need to be, then call her and give her a handful. So simple an exercise. By the third call, she's tripping over herself to get to me faster than she did last time. No more thinking, just coming. I'm happy.

She's been invited to the hairdresser -mine, not hers. My car has been in the shop for over a week now, and I'm driving a loaner. We set out late morning with her breakfast in my pocket. She sits to have her collar put on. She walks on a loose lead out to the car, hops in, moves to the floor on the passenger's side, and lies down. Holy shamoly. Who's small person is this?

Miss No-Tolerance-For-Boredom rides politely most of the way into the city, when the heater fan starts squealing loudly. She sits up, pulls her ears back, looks around, and starts her stress whining, but doesn't leave the floor. It'll take me a few seconds to figure out how to turn the fan off, so instead I toss her a handful of kibble. "Oh," she says, "the heater fan squeals and I get kibble. Cool." And that's the end of that potential difficulty.

I have to get some money, so we drive through the ATM at the bank. ATM is out of order, but I've already rolled down the window. When I roll it back up, it pops out of its socket and hangs drunkenly on the side of the car. And I still need money. I park to go into the bank. I'm thinking about the window, and Stitch follows me out into the parking lot when I get out of the car. ARGH. Call puppy, she comes back, ask her to get back in the car, she does. Gently close the car door so as not to kill the window, go into bank and get money. Stitch sits politely looking through the large hole.

So now I have money to get my hair cut, but realize I can't drive there with this drunken window, so I call in and reschedule, then drive across the street to the car fixing place. Stitch walks politely in on a loose lead. It's time to teach her to greet people by sitting, but she doesn't know that yet, so she cheerfully greets everyone she can get to by jumping up and trying to slobber on their glasses. Comes off when I ask her to, and we sit down in the waiting room. She lies down when I ask her to. It would be a good opportunity to practise Lie-Down-And-Shut-Up, but we practise positions instead - Sit, Down, Stand.

Then she spots the TV. Our TV is way above her head. This one is at puppy level. She's taken aback by the talking heads, so we do a little watch-TV-get-kibble, and in a minute she's thinking about other things, so we do some Go To Mat on her leash. Then the loaner's ready and we walk out on a lovely loose lead, hop in the car, and drive home. When we walk in the door, she turns and sits to have her collar removed. WHAT a wonderful morning!

When we get home I've still got half her breakfast, so we work on 101 with her milk carton. I can't say she does anything totally inventive, but she's happy to see it and trying hard to think of new things. Once I leave her a bit too long between clicks and she lies down, sighs, and puts her head on her paws, but I just sit looking at the carton. 10 seconds later she gets up and turns toward it - click for reengaging, and she's back into the game. Another time I see her about to quit, but she startles and goes back to it, click for that, too.

She comes to me in the evening and fusses at me - whining, the odd yap, pawing. Obviously she's ready for supper. I ignore her. Eventually she gets up on the couch beside me and settles for a cuddle.

When *I* am ready to feed her, we work on 101 again - this time with a wooden stool. I decide that I was unkind to say she wasn't particularly inventive. Next to Scuba, she's not that inventive, but Scuba's been playing this game for 9 years. Stitch started this week. She immediately knows what the stool is doing on the floor in front of my chair. She targets it with nose and paw, both paws, mouths it, runs around it in both directions. She sticks her muzzle between various rungs. She stands up with her front paws on it. When I don't click the fifth time she offers a behaviour, she doesn't quit, but thinks of something else to offer. After a while I start clicking only if the stool moves. Pretty soon she pulls it over and has to deke out of the way. This might frighten her, but it doesn't, she goes right back to moving it. She can move it by pulling it, by pushing it, and by rolling it over.

I haven't counted out any kibbles this time, so I count each one as I give it to her. 240 in a meal. I decide I don't like counting them as I give them to her, it makes me think about counting and not about training or about how great this small person is. I like it better when I count them out ahead of time, or use handfuls - 8 handfuls in a meal, 30 kibbles per handful, 3 sets of ten per handful. THAT is useful information for me as a trainer which doesn't take my attention away from the dog and the training conversation.

Man, this is one tough little nut. Will she ever be allowed privileges? I'm doubting it. TWO nights in the bed, and she's got the bed down pat. Unfortunately for her, husband is now home and she's back in the crate in the dog room. Scuba's also back in the crate in the dog room with a "yeah, whatever" and a "where's my goodnight cookie?"

Last night and tonight, Stitch went into the crate just fine, got her cookie, and played possum until 3 hours after lights out. Then 10 minutes of whining, growing louder and louder, then half an hour of demand yapping while we lay in bed pretending she was going to stop. Finally I got up and let her outside. She rewarded this behaviour by grabbing a toy and asking if I'd like to play keepaway, so I stuffed her back in her crate and the rest of the night was quiet.

Tonight, she's doing it again, except this time, after 3 minutes of preliminary whining, I got up, scolded all the way down the stairs, and whapped on her crate with a magazine. Now I'm sitting silently in the living room in the dark while she gives me 20 minutes of silence, then starts the obnoxious whining again.

Too bad it decided to be winter yesterday. I can't even put her crate in the car.

OK, 3 crate-whaps and I get 45 minutes of quiet. I'm going to bed. If you were expecting better of me than crate-whapping at 3 AM, hey, sorry. I bet Stitch wasn't expecting it either. I tried the Just Say No thing, but she was making too much noise to hear me.

A great supper, twice over. We start with scent discrimination. A couple of days ago in puppy class, I got several of my fellow students to scent four metal dumbells for me. Tonight I put one down with my scent and Cheez Whiz on it. She runs right to it, she knows there's special goo on it. X5, then I add a second one, she finds the right one X10. I add two more, she finds the right one X20.

I'm not asking her to retrieve. Partly because of her ugly tooth situation, partly because the dumbells I'm using are Giant Schnauzer sized and she can barely hold the bar in her mouth. I AM asking her to put her mouth over the bar. So it goes like this: I do Go To Mat to the far side of the room. She trots over there and lies down (oooh, I LOVE that). I change the position of the three "neutral" articles, reCheez and rescent the right one, and put it near the rest. Call her. She runs over, sniffs all of them, then licks the CW off the right one. Then I click and reward X10 for putting her mouth on the right one. We run that set of events X10.

Then I stop reCheezing and just rescent my dumbell. This doesn't bother her, she comes back to the articles and puts her mouth on the right one. Click X10, and send her back to Mat to start again. X10.

100 clicks for putting her mouth on the right article, about 97% accuracy.

I put the articles away and we try 101 Things To Do With A Box. I've tried it once before with a cardboard box, with poor results. This time I use an old plastic milk-bottle carton. It's the same size as the cardboard box, but it has big and little holes in it, it's heavier, and I can see through it.

Since she's already tried it and didn't understand it at all, I'm going to put some effort into really getting her into this silly game. X20 for looking at it and nose targeting it. X20 for putting one paw on it or the other. I decide I'm not paying for paws any more when she sticks one leg in a hole right up to the elbow. OK, I paid for it. Now she's got the idea. X40 for playing 101. I get each paw in different holes, tipping the box, standing on the box, nose in different holes, mouth around different parts of the box. Clever little dude.

Another fantastic night. I put her on the bed and lie down. Stitch immediately goes to my knees, snuggles in, and goes to sleep. Sleeps until 9 AM.

On the way to her puppy class, she's better than she has been. I have a loaner car but she hops right in. I let her sit on the front seat for a few minutes, then sprinkle some kibble on the floor. She doesn't buy it. I push her off the seat onto the floor. She jumps up. I tell her No and push her off the seat. She decides to eat the kibble and stays on the floor. When she's done I wait until she lies down and then toss another handful on the floor. Lesson learned. In the front seat, dogs lie on the floor and get kibble. No whining all the way there.

She's excellent in puppy class for the first 40 minutes. I'm particularly pleased with the entrance. Loose leash from car to door, down hallway, and into the training room. A bit of enthusiasm, but after about 3 seconds, she remembers what she doing and goes across the room to our chair with a loose leash as well.

At about 45 minutes, she loses interest or gets full - she didn't pee on the way in and leaves quite a puddle outside when we leave, so maybe thatas it. At any rate, she just stops listening and responding. Finally she gives me a few more things and I take her leash off to go play with puppies. Periodically we call them out of the group to give them treats, and she comes halfway to me, then slaps her forehead and say "WHAT are you doing? You don't want to go over there!", turns and heads off in a new direction. What's THAT about? I dunno. Teacher lends me some venison sausage, then I can't get her to go play with anybody else. Obviously I need to upgrade her on-the-road kibble and dry cat food with some wieners or something better.

Stop at the Dairy Queen on the way home. They give her a couple of Milk-Bones and she can't chew them. Takes 20 minutes to gum them to death. I finish my Blizzard and sit reading a book for a few more minutes. She tries whining but nothing happens so she shuts up. Hmmm - this is something all my dogs practised a lot in my old soccer-mom days, but nowadays when we drive we're usually going somewhere. Have to stop at the DQ more often!

I give Scuba her supper, but before I can train Stitch, I get waylaid by something on TV. Stitch is extremely annoyed. She jumps on me. I put her on the floor. She jumps on me again, and I put her on the floor again. Then she gets serious. She barks, whines, and paws at me. Too bad I don't have the closed captioning on! In all she throws her tantrum for 2 minutes before she gives up and lies down at my feet. I let her lie there for another two minutes before I get up and go into the parlour to train.

We work on retrieving a bit. She's totally understanding the requirements, but tends to pick the dumbell off the floor with her tiny new incisors. This afternoon I found two broken puppy molars being pushed out of the way by her new ones, so I move the dumbell around in my hand and let her target it in motion a few times, then quit.

Scuba and I did agility tonight, which reminds me of paw targets, so I put out one of her pink lids and start kicking it around the room. No problem, she whaps it thoroughly with her paw no matter where I put it. I still haven't got a voice cue I'm happy with for this. I said "next time" I train a dog, there's going to be definite cues for both nose targets and paw targets, and now that I'm here, I can't think of anything I like for the cue.

Then we do position cues again. She's getting very good at Sit from Down. Still having a bit of trouble with Down from Stand.

My husband's out of town for a couple of days, so I decide it's time for Stitch to learn to sleep in the bedroom like a real dog (who am I kidding - on the bed). So far she's been sleeping very nicely in her crate in the dog room off the kitchen, but in her life as a Service Dog, she won't always have a crate to sleep in. She's been making such a fuss about being on the bed, even for an hour, I'm not anticipating an excellent night.

But it IS an excellent night. Who is this puppy? I put her on the bed, she lies down and snuggles up. After half an hour, she decides she's too hot and moves to my knees. Half an hour after that, she's tummy-up and snoring softly. At 3 AM, I wake up with her tail whipping me in the face - she's wagging it in her sleep, but I won't hold that against her. When I'm ready to get up, she's still sleeping. What a good puppy!

There was definitely a breakthrough in the puppy brain yesterday. All day Stitch is cuddly and charming and more responsive than she's ever been. Another mark on the wall for Leading The Dance, even in its mildest form.

On a bit of a worrisome note, she's broken off one of her two remaining puppy canines just below the surface of her gum. I hope the new canine pushes it out, but in case it doesn't, we're not going to bother with her dewclaw until I find out whether she'll need an anaesthetic to get rid of this tooth. Might as well do both jobs at once. My pet surgeon doesn't want to do the dewclaw when she's still on meds for the eye infection anyway. Gosh, this is like a kid with a teething fever, a big bruise on his back, and four stitches in his chin. AKA "normal".

We start supper with some position reminders - Sit from standing and down, Stand from sit and down, Down from sit and standing. Then we do more retrieving. By golly, she may not have it tomorrow, but tonight she understands retrieving. She goes eagerly out to the dumbell no matter where I toss it (within 4' of me, anyway), picks it up, comes back to me, and holds it while I hold it until I click. She'll even come a little closer if I ask, or sit if I ask, still holding the dumbell. Totally exciting. And cool watching her pick it up in her lips, then toss it back into the correct position in her mouth without having to open her mouth to get it past her canines.

When we're done I feel guilty about doing retrieving with her broken tooth. While I'm tidying up, she goes in the pantry and drags a garbage bag full of used tin cans out into the kitchen. Guilt problem solved.

This morning Scuba's breakfast involves repolishing her Watch while Stitch does Go To Mat. i spend X10 getting Stitch comfortable - I've rearranged the living room furniture (computer didn't work, hard drive didn't work, car didn't work, dog clippers didn't work, I was forced to play housewife!) and moved the mat. Then three kibbles for Scuba, and if Stitch is lying down on her mat, one for her. Four for Scuba, one for Stitch. Five for Scuba, one for Stitch. Takes her half the meal to figure out that putting her TAIL on the mat doesn't count, but once she gets that sorted out she's pretty good. Has one brief flurry of yapping to tell me how unfair it is that Scuba gets to work and she has to lie on the stupid mat, but 15-16-17 for Scuba and she gets back on the mat and shuts up. I reset the count and toss her a kibble when I get to 8.

When Scuba's breakfast is gone, Stitch and I work on retrieving again. X10 I hand her the dumbell, take my hand off it, hold it again, and finally YES. Then I put it on the floor and click her for looking at it, walking toward it, leaning toward it, putting her mouth on it, picking it up. This is as far as we got before we stopped weeks ago. I really want her to know that we are talking about the dumbell, so I click for picking it up X30. Then I don't click it. Of course she drops it. We both look at it. She puts her paw on it. I pry it out from under her paw, start again, and work X30 for picking it up. Then I don't click. She drops it. We both look at it, and she reaches down and picks it up again, and holds it while I move my hand over to it and take it. EE HAH. I put it down on the floor and click X5 for picking it up, then reach for it instead of clicking again. She drops it, picks it up, and holds it until I take it. Then I put it on the floor, X5 for picking it up, then don't click, reach for it, AND SHE HOLDS ON TO IT WHILE I HOLD IT. I count to 5, YES, and give her a handful of kibble. From then on it's X3 for picking it up, then one for picking it up, handing it to me, and holding it with me. That chain X 10, and we're done.

She plays fetch with her toys, but this is the first time she's actually held onto a training object long enough for me to take it from her without dropping it. She really appears to have made the connection - the hand-mouth-holding and the go-and-pick-up have joined in the middle. Now we just need to get her MOVING while this is happening... I'm very happy about this. Once a dog can reliably retrieve, entire universes of behaviours open up.

We also do a bit of work on Sit For Examination. Once she realizes my hand is going to pet her and not deliver goodies, she does fine. We'll test this back in class in a couple of days. While I'm thinking about it, I ask her to Stand a few times and give her a Stay verbal and hand cue - something I've never done in this context before. And she stays! We play with this X10, with me stepping back up to about 4' away, and she holds the stand very nicely. If I click before I get back to her, she comes forward to meet me and get the kibble, but if I hold the click until I'm with her, she stays standing until she hears it. Good puppy!

We're on a roll now. We're so close to finishing Level Three that I look at Level Four and check off a few of the things she can do already - Come 40' through milling dogs, Swing with handler pivoting left, allowing handling of her muzzle and teeth, floor Zen for 30 seconds with her less than a foot away. And with no food, Down from standing on one cue and Sit from down on on one cue.

Starting a new level is like New Year's day - an exciting new start.

I can tell I'm excited about her retrieving because I go to buy groceries and - what's this in my cart? Cheez Whiz! Why on earth am I buying Cheez Whiz? Oh, yeah, SCENT DISCRIMINATION!

So I dig out four metal scent articles and we get started. I scent one and put some CW on it, lure her over to it. and amazing! She finds the CW and licks it off! Wow! Never mind a dead turtle could do this much, it's cool anyway. The fourth time, she's running to the article

Oh great, she just realized she can climb from half-way up the stairs onto the back of the couch.

Ahem. She's running to the article and starting to pick it up when she's finished licking it. I click picking it up X10, then send her away so I can re-Cheez it, CW for finding it and then 10 kibble for picking it up. We run that X5, then I add a second, unscented article. No trouble with that. X20 and I add a second unscented one. At this point, she tries picking up the new one. I ignore it. Who would have thought she could sit for so long holding a metal dumbell? Eventually she spits it out. Then she turns and goes back to the spot I've been asking her to lie down in while I re-Cheez them! I call her back, she comes and picks up the right one. We start again, Cheez X 10, one no Cheez. Pretty soon we're up to 4 articles. She finds the CW, then sniffs all of them and picks up the right one. This is so cool.

Had to take the computer in for repairs for a couple of days. Very good learning experience. Without access to the blog or having to write it, I floundered around. I know we worked on stuff, I just don't know what it was, and we weren't really going anywhere, just playing around. Not that playing around with clicker training is a bad idea. I distinctly remember having ideas like "Mmm, I have to write THAT down", but now that the computer's home, I haven't got a clue what THAT was.

One thing I did while it was gone was write out all the Levels behaviours in short form and make a small carryable copy of them that I laminated. This is an idea I got from PWD people, who have all the behaviours for each level of water trial on laminated luggage-tag-sized things so they can wear them around their necks while training in the water. I adapted the idea years ago to putting all the llama performance levels on tags, now I've got the Levels there too. I put coloured tape over each behaviour as I check it off, so I can easily see what else we have to work on.

I know we worked on retrieving. This has matured a lot while we weren't paying attention. In one meal she progressed from trying to hold the dumbell in her incisors (not easy when you've only got incisors on the top!) to gripping it firmly behind her canines (again, not easy when you only have canines on the top!), and from there in the same meal to taking it readily and holding it correctly while I took my hand away, waved it around a bit, put my hand back on it, and held it with her, not releasing it until I said YES! Very good.

And we went to class, and had a much better time with my headache nearly gone. She was still too excited to pee before we went in, but after ten minutes we went back out and she buckled down. Also I had no trouble getting her to focus on me when we got into the room and started working, and she came cheerfully and promptly when I called her out of a melee of people and dogs. She's gotten brave enough to romp around after the Great Dane and Golden playing nasty-sounding growly wrestle games (and smart enough not to launch into the middle of them), and to grab one of the balls and gallop around offering it to people. I'm counting that recall as coming from a mess of dogs AND from a mess of people.

In class we tried 101 Things To Do With A Box. She sucks at this. If I left her alone in the room with the box, she'd be wearing it like a hat or riding it down the stairs, but getting clicked for it... hmmm, what on earth does she want? It was a pretty tall box for a short puppy. Once she reached into it and the box grabbed her elbow. As she pulled her leg out the box flipped over and tried to grab the whole puppy. We have some more work to do on 101.

I got the instructor to approach and touch her head while she was sitting - several times. I fed her a bit while she was sitting, but was really amazed at how well she did. Throughout, she remembered she was sitting and staying. During class she's been greeting this person with a flying knee-tackle, so I was very happy with her.

Going home, I may have taught her to stay where I put her in the car. Since my car wasn't working, I drove Ron's truck. Stitch had to sit on the back seat. I put her on the back seat, closed the door, opened the driver's door, took her out, put her on the back seat, closed the door, opened the driver's door, took her out, put her on the back seat, closed the door really fast and opened the driver's door and jumped into the driver's seat - right on top of her. Well, she wasn't there when I STARTED the jump. If you've seen me you might suspect that she'll be a tad more careful about landing in my seat just before I do in future.

Half of breakfast is spent on a bath and blow-dry. She's getting better every time. Minor whimpering but no yapping, and no offering to get out of the tub. Scuba's not as good at blow-drying YET as Stitch is (Scuba's 8 years old). I still don't dry her bangs or around her ears, but she sits like a champ for the rest.

The other half is spent on Level Three. We test the Heeling - she gives me a 360 degree turn with eye contact with no warmup at all. Clever child. Then we practise her Shaped Trick - that'll be backing up. She's got lots of tricks at this point, but some of them qualify as "behaviours" so I'm not using them for tricks, and of the rest, this is the only one that's purely shaped. She's got five good backward steps, and if she can't go any further because she's run into the coffee table, she stamps her front feet and pretends.

Three more things - Sit for Examination, Loose Leash Walking, and Come - that we need to test in a class situation where I've got milling people, and Scenting, and then we're on to Level Four. Unbelievable! Call it a month per Level so far, working 2 meals a day most days. She's not perfect, by any means, but she has a good understanding of all the behaviours I've shown her, and the ability to walk into a situation ready to learn. What a great puppy.


Stitch wads up one of her dogbeds and sucks on it while making kneading motions with her paws. Her mother does this too. Part of me thinks this is a deranged and infantile behaviour that probably should be stopped. Part of me finds it too endearing to even think about. And part of me is just grateful she found something to do with her new teeth that didn't involve humans or coffee tables.

For supper we work on scenting. Wow, this is tough. It would be easier to teach her scent discrimination with dumbells and peanut butter than it is to teach her to find a treat under a kleenex. No matter what I put the treat on or under, she thinks of something else to do with it. I put down paper plates, she thinks "paper plate Zen!" and won't come near them. I put down plastic lids, she thinks "Whap the lids!" and she's knocking them all over the room and not even looking at the food. I put the kibble in a low glass and she starts kicking the glass. Finally I put kibble in one fist and present it fingers-up (fingers-down fists are automatically Zen fists) with my fingers spread so it's easy to find the food. That finally gets through to her, she's eager to find it now.

Then I put it in the glass again and show it to her with my finger. Then I put another glass out, with food only in the original glass, and show it to her with my finger. Then I start mixing the glasses up, and add a third. Finally I don't have to show her each one, she's actually sniffing in them to find the kibble. Man. It takes the entire meal just to get the idea across. And she could SEE the kibble if she was looking - but she's not, she's sniffing madly, but it just doesn't occur to her to use the information from her nose to help her find the food. Fascinating. She'll sniff for a piece of kibble on the floor for five minutes but, though she's sniffing madly, she's not processing the information to help her find the kibble in the glass. We've got some work to do before we put THIS behaviour to bed!

This week she's going to get a regrown rear dewclaw removed. We're planning on doing this without a general anaesthetic, so I need her shaved and well-behaved. We spend breakfast shaving her and working on lying on the table. Considered both our behaviiours yesterday, she's wonderful. She doesn't try to get up at all when I put her on her side on the grooming table. I reward her every minute or so, and she stays very well. When I get to shaving her back feet, she whimpers a bit, but still stays. Since I've got her back end shaved, I do her muzzle as well, then brush out her pack and do a little stack-on-the-table work. She's brilliant. I think there's a photo of her dad at this age on a website, I should take one of her and send it to him. And I'm going to hunt her down and hold her to do her eye drops from now on, rather than calling her and asking her to sit. Duh.

We have an afternoon nap. She's just as noisy this time, but doesn't struggle as much. I finally turn her upside down again, and again she falls asleep right away. Interesting mental glitch on my part - I KNOW she's a dominant puppy, that's what I wanted, and that's what I picked from the litter, but I haven't before thought to deal with that on any but a strictly training/behaviour level. Now I'm hearing a lot of people over the years complaining that their dominant dogs "aren't cuddly except on their own terms" and I'm thinking I need to spend a little more effort teaching her to accept things she doesn't want to accept.

For supper we work on Eye Contact. Very good. Then I start doing about turns with her watching all the way around. She's pretty darn good at it. We practise it X20 and she's working about 14 right on a 360-degree turn. Tomorrow we'll test it.

Then we do some front-rays and bullseyes. She's not quite as good as when we stopped a couple of weeks ago, but pretty darn good nevertheless.

I start walking slowly around the kitchen, clicking and dropping a kibble every time she finds my eyes. Pretty soon she's really into this new game. She spends a bit too much time searching for one final kibble each time I drop one, but soon remembers what made it drop and comes to find my eyes again. Between the counters and the island, she can't quite find me, but as soon as we approach a wider space, she spurts out ahead of me so she can find my eyes from the front. A very good start. We're getting back in the training groove.

And just before bedtime, Miss Independence comes to the couch and asks to come up for a cuddle.

I'm not over last weekend yet. I have a splitting headache and visitors. Stitch has a puppy class. Stitch is awful. It's like she hasn't been trained for the last week at all. (hmmm). In the first place she doesn't want to get in the car. Then she whimpers in her crate most of the way there. She wants to go play with the other puppies. I have to stand on my head to get her to come (she was good at this last week) (She Knows This) (I want to strangle her). She won't Sit and at one point I find myself actually reaching for her butt to push it down. Argh. The instructor comes over and looks at me and I realize/explain that she's got an eye infection and the drops I'm putting in her eyes sting a bit, which is why she's leery of sitting near me. The *%^#$ instructor says "So it's not Stitch's fault?" I want to strangle her. Of COURSE it's not Stitch's fault. HowEVer, one reason I'm attending this class is that the instructor, unlike many, has the guts to say things like this to me. I put Stitch on a tie-out on the other side of the room, sit back down and pull myself together.

When I go back to get Stitch, she's happy to see me. I start clicking a LOT for a loose leash, and I start (surprise) getting eye contact, so I click for that. We do some loose leash walking, and I click for that. By then Stitch is into the game enough to do some Zen - she's brilliant at this and actually does Zen instead of wanting to visit other puppies.

When we're done, I ask the instructor to test her on 20 seconds of hand Zen, which she passes (ahem) handily. She also passes all of Level One, but my headache is too bad to bother with the Come Game. We'll leave that for next time. When we leave, she thinks about not getting in the car for a minute, then climbs right in.

After supper, my headache is worse and I take Stitch and go to bed. I just want her to lie down on the bed with me, but she thinks this is outrageous. She yaps and fusses. Finally I turn her upside down in one arm beside me and we both go to sleep. As I'm falling asleep I'm thinking "Leave her for a week and she doesn't even know how to fall asleep on the bed!"

I'm still semi-conscious from the week at the llama show - I'm allergic to hay, straw, dust, etc, so being in a sand-floored dusty barn with hay and straw, and running back and forth and showing and being show secretary - it leaves me pooped for a couple of weeks. I need something fun to get me back into training, so we go outside. I've got the dogwalk taken apart for the llamas to walk the boards, so I get Stitch walking the boards. Excellent, and she stops automatically in the yellow at the end. Woo hoo. We working up to it, so I won't count it today, but she's very secure.

We walk past the teeter at full height on the way in to the house, and she tells me she wants to work on it. Last time, I got her going up to the fulcrum. Then I took her off and put her back on at the fulcrum and led her down, easing it to the ground. She's a bit leery of getting it on it. She wants to walk her front feet up and leave her back feet on the ground. I reward that X20, then stand in her way so she can't get her front on up as high as she wants to. The only way to reach high is to get right on the board. So she does. I let her eat handfuls at a time, and X5 brings her to thefulcrum, where she reaches the end of the handful and jumps off to start again. Another 5 gets her past it, and waiting there while I get more food out of my pocket. The first time the board tips, she thinks about bailing off but decides she'd rather kibble all the way down. X3, and I feed her while it's tipping, then let her walk down on her own and stop on the contact.

EE-HAH.

She easily accomplishes the board walk and stop on the contact. In fact, she runs over and does it before I get there, stopping and turning to stare at me when she gets to the end. "Well? Click, dammit! I'm waiting!"

She's decided, however, that she's not as brave about the teeter as she thought she was. It isn't a setback, we were working WAY ahead of ourselves this morning. X30 gets her back to the fulcrum. I pick her up off the ground and put her there X5, and she's still fine with walking down after the tip and stopping on the contact. She just can't put them together yet.