Happily ever after

Well, Annie's been with me for six weeks, and looking back at my original behavior wish list, we're pretty much there, even with the addition of working on her various fear stuff.  Probably could have cut this time by about half if I'd been in "money training" mode, but stuck to my goal of just incorporating working with her into daily life.  Now it's just a matter of continuing what Suzanne Hetts calls good "behavioral hygiene."  So a typical day looks something like this:

• Get up and take dogs outside for potty.  (Annie now sleeps on a dog bed in the bedroom with the door closed--no more crate)
• Breakfast (dogs a few feet apart, but with a baby gate barrier).  Everybody sits for food bowl.
• Call Annie from porch to front gate (rocket recall for this!).  Car ride to park for leash walk.  She gets a treat if she jumps into the car on her own.  At the park, treats for:
• people coming close--she's now sometimes actually darting up to greet people and ducks aways from hands slightly if at all.  I still enlist as many people as possible to give her treats themselves.
• sudden loud noises
• dogs passing close by, or barking at us at any distance
• eliminating (I want to encourage potties on walks, so she'll go when we're away from home)
• coming away from interesting sniffs and goodies.  (Her recall has gotten so strong, I just use it instead of a "leave it," when I want her to leave something--the only difficult thing has been cat poop!)
• Noonish--out front to potty then lunch--same as breakfast, preceded by 5 minutes of working on nails 
• Afternoon walk--either around the neighborhood or another car ride to a busy street--same treat system as morning walk. 
• Early evening--out front to potty then dinner followed by 2 minutes of tooth brushing practice
• Bedtime--last potty outing, then dog bed in bedroom for the night.

This is our basic routine.  The rest of the day is spent with her lounging around while I work.  She only notices landscaping motor sounds some of the time, and is easily comforted with treats and some sit practice.  Most days include a couple of little play sessions as the spirit moves someone--she loves to fetch the Wiggly Giggly ball.  And she plays with toys on her own.  If she barks at something outside, I can call her (again with the recall) and she comes back and quiets.  I work in a couple of hide and seek recalls during the day, usually when she's outside and I call her from some room in the house. 

I haven't done the cuing on and off furniture yet, just haven't gotten around to it, and although I think her recall is good enough, I want to arrange to observe some more small dog interactions before I start off leash runs with her at the big park.   Here's a video of Henry doing what I'm planning for with Annie--maybe in another month or so.

I'm not doing long duration alone time yet, but this is because she broke out of her crate last week, so we're building out of crate alone time.  My web cam shows that she settles down fine in the living room on her usual bed after looking out the window for a few minutes.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't a sep anx jail break, but she could have hurt herself, so I don't want to use it anymore.  For now, I'm using the car when I need longer times, but figure I only need another week so on this.