Pip Progress: No More Miss Bitey

Pip is no longer Miss Bitey after walks. It wasn't a hard behavior to manage at all, but now it is history. She still is Miss Bitey when over-excited, but now I'm noticing her threshold for stimulation is improving.

In addition, I've been taking her to her dog training classes. She's been doing amazing!!! We worked a lot on matwork to help her be able to bring her calmness out on the road and it worked really well. I wish that I filmed her in her class, but I really had to be focused on the things we were learning and making sure she was relaxed and comfortable.

The important thing is that you have to proof this behavior. Proofing means you test it against the 3 Ds: distractions, distance, and duration. We practiced this behavior in different locations as well: The hallway outside of our apartment and outside. Because we tested it to her limits, she could easily lay on her mat for nearly the entire class while the instructor told us about the different exercises we were going to do that day.

She went from angry girl yelling at everyone from her corner to actually participating in class and being a total overachiever. I could not be more proud of my bright girl!