Day three with my foster dog

Wednesday - day three - more exercise

Bruce had a repeat of the past morning routine of road running, walking on leash, and sitting. He took the treats from my hand much more gently without the use of his teeth. He has a huge appetite and is definitely food motivated which is so helpful when clicker training.

He slowed down a little faster on the runs and I think his feet maybe a bit tender from the rough gravel on the road. I traveled closer to the edge and let him run in the grass on the side of the road or on the road edge where the gravel was thinner. I also clipped the leash to the head halter from time to time to let him get the feel of it in use. He did keep trying to remove it from time to time but the time intervals will expand as he get more use to wearing it.

I skipped the road run at lunch time and took him out again in the evening. I had brought home my two ponies from my Mother's pasture and put them back in their pony yard. So now I stopped at their yard and let Bruce met them though the gate. He was a bit intimidated by their size, but didn't growl or try to bite at them, another good first meeting. Hope the meeting of my cat will go as well, if my cat will show up when I am working with Bruce. Like some cats she is not around much during daylight hours. She is a mostly outside cat and spends the daytime asleep who knows where.

First Bath

After the evening run Bruce jumped into my tiny 80 gallon goldfish pond when I tried to let him check it out and drink from it. Don't think the fish were to happy about it. Yep, he is a typical lab and loves to take a dunking in water.



I had noticed that Bruce smelled a bit like urine, but the dunking in the pond increased the smell to the point of making my nose crinkle. So clipped his leash to the fence I bought out the hose and give him a bath with a special mix to help rid him of the urine scent. He did very well with the bath. Some dogs love to swim in a pond but throw a fit when you bath them. Bruce just stood there and let me wash him. I did get quite wet from him shaking off the water before I could step back away from him.

NOTE: special bath mix for stinky dogs: 1 quart 3 percent hydrogen peroxide (available from any drugstore), 1/4 cup of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and 1 teaspoon of liquid soap, such as Ivory. Mix and quickly apply to the stinky pet. Let sit a few minutes and then rinse off.

I put this mix into a hose sprayer and it gets mixed with water as it is sprayed on the dog. This dilutes the formula, but it still works well if the dog is not supper stinky. If he is use the above method.

On this third day Bruce had repeat lessons on sitting and focus and new lessons on "DOWN" -- which needs much more work. At this point he seems to think that the down lesson means flop onto his side and roll around the ground or flop into my lap. Another good quite night without any excessive barking from Bruce.