I haven't been taking Doniphan out as much because of the whole "child incident" I felt guilty, distracted, and kept trying to justify it. So after I publicly apologized to all of you, I felt alot better. That is one reason why I started this blog, I knew there were going to be some things that went perfect and other things that would make you say "She did what?!" but I wanted to be able to write down my feelings, our lessons, and of course, our adventures.
So Yesterday he came to work with me again and it was a really slow day, so I used that time to work on his obedience, out-of-sight recall, toy, people, and food distractions. Don't worry, I only did all of this when people weren't in the store. :) The out of sight recalls were just funny because He couldn't get his foot on the slippery store floor :) He was so excited though, needs a bit of work, but did alright. We have several noisy dog toys that are used as part of a display up front, and I played with toys, dropped it in front of him, threw it over him, etc...He did great with all of that! I was impressed.
With food distraction, one of the dog food bags were damaged on a pallet when it got shipped to us, so I grabbed a handful and layed it on the floor in various locations. He needs more work with that, but that's our job, to make sure they are prepared for formal training.
I want to thank you guys again for being understanding. I love puppyraising and couldn't imagine myself doing anything else! Puppyraising is as much learning for me as it is for the dog. You learn how to talk to people, relate, and educate and I failed at that a few days ago, I was not a good ambassador for KSDS, and I will try to take this failure, learn from it, and turn it into something much better!
Thanks to all of you!
3 comments:
Glad to hear you're feeling better about it! I know all of us have done things while puppy raising that we're not exactly proud of and it makes us better people to realize it and grow because of it! Thank you for sharing it with us!
Would it be okay if I e-mailed you privately?
This dog will be well-prepared to be a working dog when you turn him in. On one of the guide dog email lists I'm on, we've been discussing skills we wish the PR's would work on more with the pups before turning them in for training, and everything you worked on was on the list. Some person's going to be lucky to have Doni as their SD.
Sarah, I appreciate your honesty. If I had a nickel for every time I've done something I later regret, I'd be richer than Donald Trump (if he's still rich; I don't really keep up with that kind of stuff).
I guess our puppies aren't the only works in progress! We puppy raisers always have a thing or two to learn as well. ;)
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