Wednesday, April 9, 2008

I wonder about that girl

Lily is hormonal right now-arguing with Prissy for her rightful place. She has learned to climb up on the steps and is quite proud of herself for that. But she does some odd things. Like, I put her food in her crate and she howled and carried on until I showed her it was there-she just doesn't think to look for herself.

Normally, I put her in the crate and then put her food in so she know's it's there.

She needed a few extra cuddles too. I was working on positive reinforcement, which meant no dog got a treat unless they were sitting quietly. Which meant Lily didn't receive very many treats. As with leash training, this comes a little harder to Lily who is used to having everything handed to her. The concept of "I need to do this in order to get THAT...." elludes her.

I didn't give her a treat that she didn't earn, but later, after the training session, I did pick her up and cuddle her a lot. It may be that she is learning disabled (remember, she was cut out of a dead dog at birth) or just spoiled. Whatever the case may be, she's a beloved member of the pack.

2 comments:

soulbrush said...

you see what i mean...you give these doggies such human qualities (without the true spitefulness of our race!).

Debra Kay said...

I am begining to think the dogs are at a higher level of consciousness than we are. They don't have the choices we do, but some of them end up in pretty good circumstances anyway. A lot of them don't however.