Well tomorrow is the big day! We start our agility classes tomorrow and we are both totally pumped! I started Alfie on some target training a few days ago and he is such a fast learner it actually completely blows my mind... When I say fast, I mean over the course of twenty or so minutes he learned to touch the target when asked. He also learned how to deal with it when the target wasn't within reaching distance. Meaning that he now understands to go to the target (wherever it is), touch it and stay there. Crazy right!? How did I get so lucky!? 

I have been sick all this week which has really sucked and so I haven't been able to do anymore jump training with him, but I think he'll do great regardless.

It's pretty rad to see what all of this work has been doing for his confidence too! When he sits now, he doesn't tuck in his tail or flip right over onto his back when you go to give him a cuddle. 

He has come so far that even people we meet in the park who have seen him a couple of times have noticed and complimented me on my work with him! It's pretty rewarding for sure!

I can't wait to get started on agility tomorrow! It's been years since I used to train with Lucky so I really hope I don't goof up too bad...

Wish us luck!

So I thought, since I seem to have mastered this issue (I say this knocking on wood of course hehe), that it might cool to share some of the things I have tried and what has worked for us so far!

Now for those of you who know me, you will know that I am a pretty huge Cesar Millan fan. He is brilliant! No kidding! His method of exercise, discipline and affection really is the answer! I've made a few changes, but have based my method mostly on his.

First off, nothing is going to help if your dog isn't tired. A tired dog is a relaxed dog. So here you will need to experiment with how long a walk it takes to drain your dogs energy. If you have a treadmill that works too.

Next you will have to decide whether you will crate your dog, keep him in a pen or section off an area of the house. I keep Al in my office with my parrot (the two of them are buds so I wouldn't recommend this if your dog has a strong prey drive).

Here is a snippet of our morning routine. I wake up at 6:15am and am ready and out the door with Al by 7am. We go for a walk up to the park, around it and back. We get home by 7:50am. Then it's breakfast for Tink, breakfast for Al and then breakfast for me! Then by 8:15 Al is in his crate and I'm out the door shortly after. This schedule has really worked for us, but you may need to experiment and see what works for you!

Try not to give your dog an excessive amount of affection (don't judge me yet, let me finish) right when you both wake up. Get suited up and head out for your walk. Don't make a big fuss about it, just do it. Think positive thoughts!

I'm no expert, I just go by what feels right. What I do know is that "bad manners" as I like to call them are not allowed. You are the leader, so make sure you are in charge of the situation. Trust me, it will make your dog feel a lot better if he knows you are in control of things.

Make sure your dog has some "dog" time too though. I take Al up to the park and let him roam around and do his own thing for a bit. But it's always up to me when we stop and when we go.

After our walk I give loads of cuddles and snuggles to my little guy. Now we can start our day since we have woken up, traveled, had a successful walk and now it's time to eat!

Dogs will often become anxious if they feel hungry when you aren't home. We've experimented on this and can say so with certainty that when Al hadn't been fed beforehand he would whine and if he had he would sleep. Please don't misunderstand me, Alfie is always well fed and never goes hungry!

Once you know you need to start packing up to leave, you need to realize that your dog is watching you. You'll probably notice him following you, maybe he's whining a little bit or maybe he's just staring without blinking... Yep, Al is guilty of all of those behaviours.

The trick here is not to ask why, not to say things like, "He just won't stop!" and not to get frustrated. Believe it or not, if you take charge of the situation and stop thinking it's up to your dog, you can stop these unwanted behaviours pretty quick.

First off, as hard as I know it is, don't feel sorry for your dog. He will pick up on this and start to get anxious. Here is what you need to do:

If you have a computer and a mic, download Audacity and record your dog! Listen to what he's up to!

Now now Al you know you aren't supposed to be jumping up on people... He he...

So I thought I would drop in and give a quick progress report on how Al has been doing!

It was looking a little grim there for a while, but with patience, LOTS of exercise and crate training him again from scratch he now makes no noise at all during the day! Not a peep! He's been consistent too! It's been really nice knowing that he's feeling happy enough to just relax during the day when I'm at work.

We had a little hiccup though last week when Al got really sick and we had to take him to the vet. He had bloody diarrhea and I was really scared that something serious was wrong. Good news though, everything is fine and it was just a reaction to a different flavour of canned food we switched too. Turns out he dislikes lamb as much as I do, who knew? He he... (I'm actually a vegetarian now, but when I did try it that one time I got pretty sick.)

ALSO! Very exciting news! We've signed up for our agility classes starting on Sept 22nd! We are really pumped! I've been working with Al and the one jump that I have and he is a natural! I can't believe how high he clears the ten inch jump!

The only other change that we made was he now sleeps in our room on either his chair (with loads of blankets and pillows) or under my arm in bed (which he does in the middle of the night without waking me up so in the morning I have a little pup under the covers with me haha).

All in all he is such a good boy and I love him to pieces!