Time for a Bark Busters training update. Autumn is now in Week 5 (already!) of her behavioral training. Which basically means that it has been 5 weeks since the trainer came to work with her and teach me how to teach her. At the end of this training period, he’ll come back to re-evaluate her and we’ll decide what to work on next with her.

So far, she has done really well! There is a definite change in her behavior. She and Orion haven’t fought since her training began. (yes!!) The only minor setback she has had was yesterday when I was putting her back in the den, where they sleep, and she growled at Orion…randomly. I heard it and in about half a second, I growled back at her and she totally backed off. I’m not kidding. After I growled, she literally sat on her butt and wagged her tail at me. It was awesome! I really have no idea why she just growled at Orion (all he did was look at her!), and I’m going to mention it to her trainer when I see him next. But dude, this Bark Busters method really works. I’m soooo happy.

Sometimes I take her in the front yard, just to get her used to being on the leash out of the house. Today a couple people were walking past the house, and she barked at them a couple times. I kind of got her to stop, but I know what I did wrong (forgot to do the growl, it’s supposed to be used for all kinds of correction). This really is work! I have to consciously remember to use the correction, and I don’t always do it.

But still, she has made major progress these past weeks and I’m just so happy about that. My goal is to teach her to behave so well that I can take her on walks without her barking at every single stranger she sees!

Orion is my well-behaved doggy, hehe. He rarely barks. The thing he needs to work on, though, is the stay command. The dog will NOT stay. He sits just fine–for about 2 seconds. I tell him “sit,” and he sits. “Good dog!” Then I say “stay,” and his butt bounces back up as if on SPRINGS. It’s so funny, really. Maybe he thinks stay means get back up and play? lol I’m glad he doesn’t have any behavioral issues, but sheesh! Learn to stay, dog! lol I’m going to ask the trainer about that, too…watch, the trainer will have Orion staying in 5 minutes, I bet.

Clearly, I could talk about my doggies all day. Just wanted to post an update, and let y’all know that training is going really well!