Yay for Honor!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Yay for Honor!

    I have to post a synopsis about Honor's day yesterday, because she had such a good training day!  To give some background, Honor and I have been working on:

    1.) Not pulling/barking at other dogs or people.  She's never aggressive, just SOOOO excited, but it can confuse people who don't know.

    2.) Being nice during bathtime.  Honor hates water, with a capital "H".  She flails, whines, and just generally does everything she can to make bathtime horrendous. Smile

    3.) Her "stand" command.  Honor will sit and lay down all day for you, but doesn't find "stand" to be a good use of her time.

    Well...yesterday morning was the dreaded bathtime.  I filled the tub up a few inches with water, and brought Honor into the bathroom.  At this point, she'll usually start barking at the door to be let out, but she actually just stood on the rug and watched me get her shampoo and rinse cup ready.  Because she was behaving so well, I decided "what the heck", and gave her the "In" command just to see if she would get in the tub (which has NEVER happened).  And she DID. Indifferent My eyes bugged out of my head, lol.  It was incredible!  And, she stood still while she was shampooed and rinsed!  And to top it all off, when the bath was over, she actually lay down to be toweled off!  (She thinks towels are offending objects).  It was so...blissful that I almost cried, lol.  Usually bathtime leaves us both soaked and unhappy.  It was such a nice change to be pleased after a bath.

    Then, DH and I took Honor to the pet supply store to get more Canidae.  Now, anybody she meets in stores or outside is usually cause for incredible excitement and voluminous noise.  When we were all walking to the car, a woman was coming into the building, and I asked Honor to "Sit", "Stay", and "Quiet".  And even though you could see that she was using every ounce of restraint she had, she stayed in a quiet sit until the woman passed!  Woohoo!  Praise, praise, praise.  And the icing on the cake was that I decided to go for broke and practice "Stand" around the store.  Every time I asked Honor to sit, stand, or lay down, she did!  Even with distractions! 

    It was so wonderful!  Honor's been a bit of a rebellious girl lately, and that can sometimes be frustrating, especially because we both know that she can behave. Smile  It was so lovely to see her training coming together, and was so incredibly rewarding that I feel compelled to share the triumph.  Yay for Honor!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Yay Honor!!!!!!  Please give her some BIG skritches from me.  I'm so proud of both of you.  It's wonderful to see something you've been working so hard on finally come together. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Good news, its so much fun when the training is working and you see results.

    I noticed you said the "dreaded bath time" do you give regualar baths?  Just be careful you don't over bath her, dogs really aren't meant to be bathed like humans and can end up with skin problems.  For instance, my dogs get two baths per year!  My girlfriends little hairy dog gets groomed once a month and I think they bathe him too but she says they use gental shampoo's.

     

     

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    Awesome! I love hearing stories about her because she's a mini-Dakota. All of your stories ring so true lol

    I think it's time for updated pics of her! 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Thanks everyone!  I'm just thrilled to see everything clicking together after so much work.  

    Julie, you're right, I should make a post of new Honor pics in the Photo section!  And Swissy, I don't give regular baths, I think Honor would mutiny, lol.  Just a bath when she's good and dirty.  I say the "dreaded bathtime" because Honor just really hates water, she doesn't even like snow!  And she's supposed to be descended from huskies. Stick out tongue

    Honor was super-fabulous tonight as well, sitting pretty and quiet as a group of rambunctious guys passed us in the hallway.  Success!