Day19: Listen to me when I bark at you!

Today we had a family day. My niece was visiting and we had about 15 people in the house and eating outside. Casey was in heaven with all the activity and attention...and then in hell once we went outside to eat! No one was giving her food (because we are discouraging begging) and because she had already eaten lunch. I had her clipped to a 15 foot tie-out near where we were sitting. She began to bark and bark and bark and bark. Ugh. There was no way to make her stop. Saying no didn't help. Ignoring her didn't help. I finally gave her a kong filled with frozen peanut butter and that kept her quiet for about 5 minutes as she gulped it down with a lightening fast tongue. I reluctantly put her in her crate to calm down. She barked and then got quieter so I rewarded her by letting her out. She again commenced barking at us...begging for food. I sat with her but she was just too focused on food to care about my affection. Oh, well.

I had to put her in her crate after we went inside and while she barked for about 10 minutes, she quickly fell asleep. She was soo tired and needed to rest. It amazes me sometimes how much puppies and toddlers are alike. They get overtired, wound up and put everything in their mouths! I officially have three children...and I didn't have 9 months to prepare for this one! It is a learn as you go kinda deal and I hope I am doing a good job.


I am also trying to work on the training by reinforcing sit, stay, paw and down, but adding “turn away” and “back”. Back is the hardest because she doesn't naturally move backwards when wanting a treat. I have to wait for her to back up on her own or nudge her and then give her a treat. She is catching on well though. I will keep working with it.