Downed Tree Front Yard Adventure

Louie and I have been practicing.
Everyday we put his harness on and go outside to practice simple commands. For the first time in Louie's adult life, we are doing this with treats and he loves it. I've never seen his butt hit the ground so fast when I say sit. He's even starting to sit on his own when I stop which is really cool. The weird this is he'll step in front of me and tun 90 degrees toward me before he sits. I don't exactly get why that is. It's his reset point? He still stays in the sit position when I step back in front of him and give him the treat.

We have really been practicing 'stay'.
To pass the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test at the end of this class, Louie will have to sit and stay for three minutes. Three whole minutes. That is like an hour in dog time. So we practiced 30 seconds at a time for a while yesterday, then a minute at a time, but with treats every 30 seconds. He's getting better at staying seated when I'm approaching. Before he'd get excited when he could here me coming back because he knew that meant a treat. Now he's understanding better that he doesn't get that treat if he gets up and we have to start over again. Louie is a pretty smart guy.

There is a tree that we cut down in our front yard.
It was old and dying and down she went. The trunk and branches are still in piles around the stump. Louie has avoided that area all together since the day there was all that racket with the chainsaw. Smart guy. So we went on a front yard adventure out to the tree stump. Louie navigating around fallen limbs and tree trunks is a pretty amazing sight. He follows blindly behind me, lifting his legs high, squeezing his eyes closed tight and putting his best paw forward. When we got to the stump, Louie was hesitant to step up. So I stepped onto the stump first and Louie climbed up right behind me. It reminded me just how much Louie trusts me. It could be a scary and dark world in there. If Louie wasn't in a place of kindness and understanding, he could be a fearful, Un-trusting dog. When it hits me again, the magnitude of his love and trust for me, it makes me so happy to be alive. Patients, understanding and love has created a safety net for Louie to live happily and function while completely in the dark.

Louie is working well with distractions.
As we practice, we're being tailed by three other animals. Snorp, our other dog, races happily around us. Full speed ahead! 'What are you doing, where are you going, can I have some, what next' he bounces merrily from place to place. Following just behind Snorp and attempting to finally catch and murder his swinging dog tail is Meatloaf Kitty, swiping for that pesky tail, her arch nemesis and most treasured friend. Louie hears the weird little kitten squeaks and squirrel noises she makes as she darts from side to side at max speed. How something so little can pad the ground so hard with their tiny feet and make such a racket, I will never know.

The third 'animal' in question, and the most challenging distraction is Grandpa Chuck, my dad. He's stepped out onto his porch to watch Louie try and climb over he branches to the stump, his eyes glistening with the pride he has for his grand dog. He loves us so much that he just can't help but try to stir things up. So he gets Snorp to start barking by staring him down and stomping his feet, the Meatloaf goes racing away and Louie starts barking too. Louie starts to move like he is going to run, he was so excited he almost forgot but here I am a foot away to remind him to slow down. He's so excited but he lets me guide him back over the logs and limbs onto the grass and he trots away too. He wants to find my dad. I hope Louie will get better at working with distractions, all of them, even the 'bad dog enabling grandpa' distractions, which  are the toughest by far. I know one thing, I won't have Grandpa Chuck there for CGC test day for Louie, but I will use him as the ultimate gauge of Louie progress.