A Week of Progress

Keeping with our flower theme, Izzy in the daisies.

A busy week with Izzy. She had her advanced training class on Wednesday. We worked a lot on loose leash walking and being calm around the other dogs around the other people and dogs and paying attention to us. Izzy did great! A playdate with her bff, Juno on Wednesday afternoon. She loves her playdates and seems to know when someone is coming to visit. Thursday, we had a professional photographer out, Salty Pet Portraits. Grady was great with Izzy and she loved him. I was amazed we were able to do the session without a leash. This was for her 1st birthday (June 8th) so more to come.

With her certification test planned for July, I decided to put more emphasis on going out to public places. Yesterday, we took Izzy to PetSmart. She did great! Two months ago, I would have been pulled through the store, but she did not pull me. While getting her to stay right at my side was a challenge, she stayed near. She was relaxed enough to be able to respond to positive reinforcement via praise and treats and checked in with me frequently. She was able to follow basic commands like wait and sit and with me. There was another dog there who was having a meltdown and barking and howling and Izzy just ignored it. She ignored the other dogs and people. She got to meet 2 adults and a child. She waited and then politely approached when I gave her the OK to say "hi" and enjoyed the pets. It is good to see that she is enjoying children petting her. Not sure what happened with the one little girl she was afraid of a month ago but maybe it was during a fear period or because the girl was making a lot of erratic movements. Whatever the reason, she has done great with children since. I have seen so much improvement with her in public places in the last few months. She's still young and still excited but is able to pay attention to and listen to me now. She got several new toys. I let her pick them out and she got one yesterday and the rest will be a surprise on her birthday.

Going on these outings really tires her out as you can see by the last photo. That's how she spent the rest of the afternoon.

Izzy at the end of our PetSmart visit.

Visiting a new place and behaving is definitely exhausting.