busy busy busy

Busy busy busy today!

Darcie and I moved up the date of our public access tests to Thursday morning; the pass might be closed Saturday - the day Darcie was initially going to back to Seattle - and to make sure that we finish everything in time, Owen and I will be doing our public access test Thursday instead of Friday.  I hope Darcie gets to stay in Spokane through Friday, but I've driven to Seattle in bad weather, so I totally understand. 

In fact...  we passed one item on the public access test tonight!  One of the things we have to do is have a child greet Owen while he is in a "sit"; which is difficult since most of my friends are all my age (i.e. no kids).  At the vet tonight, there was a very sweet little boy who was enamored with Owen ("doggie doggie doggie"), so we let him greet Owen to check that item off our list.

 

 

 

 

Owen loves everybody, but kids are the best!

Owen and I started off our day by going to Gonzaga; Owen already loves Gonzaga and we've only been there three times!  He's pretty sure everybody there is there to see him, and he tries to solicit as many looks (and he hopes pets!) as possible.  He did so great at school; we worked in the computer lab for a while (he did a perfect "under" as soon as we walked in without being asked) and had a lot of practice opening doors to go talk to people - opening a door with a dog can be pretty difficult. :)  He also got to show off some of his tasks to my friends; I think he knew he was showing off too!

We went home for a quick nap, and then met up with Darcie for our afternoon training session.  Poor Owen; we worked on his "leave it" command with his food.  He is highly food motivated so it's something we have to practice a lot.  First we did it where he was in a down-stay on the floor and I placed food next to him; then he had to walk around the apartment with me while I dropped food...  Then he had to be in a down-stay while I dropped food around him.  You would think it couldn't get worse... until this.

Can you spot the kibble?

Poor Owen!  I felt really bad for him, but he did awesome.  (And he got to eat the kibble afterwards for a good job, just not off the floor or his paws; I had to pick it up first.)
We then went to Target because I needed some things and we needed to practice walking with a cart.  We weaved in and out of the aisles so that Owen learned how to adjust to my pace.  He did really really great and by the time we left there were very few reminders needed.  Owen was very pleased with this trip because I finally remembered to buy him peanut butter (I don't eat it), so now we can do peanut-butter Kongs.

 After leaving Target, we went across the street to Safeway to practice walking around food and to remind Owen that he needs to "leave it" when we are at the store (he needed a reminder in the meat department!).  Darcie says we will go back tomorrow to practice walking in the grocery store with a cart.

The bread smells really tempting to both me and Owen!

We then went to lunch (both Owen and I were pretty tired at this point!); Owen was pretty stoked to get to nap under the table.  There were so many crumbs under the table, and he ignored all of them to sleep.  We had to eat quick though, because then we were off to the vet.  Owen and I will be going to Texas Monday, and he needs to be on heartworm preventatives before we go.  I know the risk is pretty low in the wintertime, but the medication we got also works for fleas and internal parasites so it's just easier to put him on it and know he is protected.  I am planning to keep him on these medications because we will likely hopefully be moving to Texas this summer, and I can get some of the medications free with an IAADP membership (which I need to remember to file for).

A perfect "under" - he was ready for a nap!

As usual, Owen was spectacular today.  There were a few times he was a "butthead" (as Darcie put it), but he's not perfect and he is allowed a few moments like that because he is such a good boy most of the time.  Tomorrow we are going to practice the items on the public access test so that on Thursday we are ready for everything (and so if there is something we need to work on, Owen and I can practice!).  It feels like we just started, and now Owen is almost here to stay!