Training & barking

Over the last few days me & Molly have made some good progress with training. Sometimes I'm quite stubborn & won't do things if I can't see the point or just don't want to, but I really impress Molly when I seem to grasp what she wants me to do. Obviously the food she rewards me with helps! We've started doing shorter training sessions more frequently which is better for my short attention span. I make her laugh too when I insist on doing things my way - which may not seem to be the most obvious or straightforward way to her.

The photo below is from a training session where Molly was trying to teach me to climb onto her bed with the help of a cushion on the floor. She tried tempting me into position with food but I was really stubborn & kept working out unusually complicated ways to get at the food without putting my back legs on the cushion!

Molly's dad moved the divider in my inside crate so I've got more room to stretch out now. Molly is also wondering about whether to get me a bigger bed but wants to wait & see if I'm happy to just sprawl across my current one first.

On Wednesday evening we went on a short walk to the Scout Hut field before bed because it's the closest place I can run around off-lead to expend some of my seemingly endless energy. Just as we were getting towards the end of the field & Molly was thinking about putting my lead back on I saw someone walking down the pavement nearby & thought I'd run over to say hello. Molly was worried because it was dark, the gate was high enough off the ground for me to get under & the passer-by was across a road! But when she called my name I stopped immediately (before she even had chance to say "come") & then I returned to her for food. She kept telling me what a good dog I was.

I'm getting more vocal every day which Molly & her family aren't too keen on. I bark when I'm excited when we're out on walks & I bark in the house to warn everyone that there are things happening outside. I also bark sometimes when I want things. Yesterday we went on a walk to the playing fields (where I did some good socialising with a dog we met) & we went to see Molly's mum at work. Kate & Libby were there too so I got very excited. I didn't mean to scare Libby with my barking, or the other children we passed on our walk.

Molly has now taught me an easier way to get on & off her bed so I'm happier at night now I can move between her bed, the floor & the sofa. Molly still thinks the positions I sleep in are funny. Here are a few photos of me on the sofa, sorry for the poor quality, the lighting wasn't very good.

This morning the noisy chickens in the garden woke me at 6.15am but Molly was really impressed that I entertained myself until almost 7am so she could doze a bit longer. I had to wake her up properly then though because I needed a wee!

I've had a sleepy day which has worked out well because Molly has had to go out on a couple of occassions, but her brother played with me which was good fun. Then this evening Molly took me out  for a walk in the village where I could be off-lead most of the time. My recall was really good & we're making good progress on "stay close" (to Molly) when I'm both on & off lead. I did lots of barking at a passer-by we saw though & Molly wasn't sure if I was scared or excited so she's going to try to learn a bit more about dog body language so she can understand me better.

Here are some photos from this evening's walk

I'm now completely back to my normal food & my tummy seems fine. Molly forgot to weigh me this morning but will hopefully do it tomorrow so we'll see how much weight I've put on this week. I've now got all of my adult teeth through at the front of my mouth but still have some baby teeth to lose further back. Silly Molly said she wants to keep one of my baby teeth but I keep swallowing them so she hasn't found any yet!