Today at work was a bit unusual for Ellie. She had a visit from one of her species! Marley, one of the pressmen's dogs came in for the day. Marley is an Old English Sheepdog. Many of my coworkers were amazed the two dogs didn't fight. (Seriously?) At first Ellie didn't know how to react. Then she wanted to play. She's been highly dog distracted lately, so, every chance I got, I made her walk by him but not visit. She got better by the end of the day with just me giving her a verbal correction instead of leash one too. It was fun to watch her catching on that when she's working she should ignore other doggies.
Here she's greeting him, naughty Ellie. But, she kept moving and didn't do her usually silly hops and after we past him, she kept moving forward. Sometimes she turns around and walks backwards. So, the fact that she kept moving was a HUGE step forward.
This was us sitting close but not sniffing or greeting.
Sean holds his dog Marley and Ellie. He's not as strict with Ellie as I am.
Ellie likes Marley.And, some just random work pics.
Ellie looking back at Marley, but still behaving and sitting at the door.
Ellie under my desk.
She was getting a bit bored with the camera. It's not her favorite thing. 
Ellie at my desk.
In other news, on our evening walk Ellie also did well with the dogs behind fences. Usually it takes us several passes to get Ellie to walk on a loose lead next to the dogs right off the sidewalk barking on the other side of the wire fences. Today, she did it on her first pass! That was a first! YAY ELLIE!!!!!! She also ignored the birds that were fluttering around in yards and squirrels. Also a first! I can't tell you how excited I was to see how well she did! My little labby is really growing up. Also on our walk, we almost got ran over - or at least closer than I'd like to be! We were walking on a busy street and were just at the end of a long entryway to a rather busy gas station. As we were just to the other side of the sidewalk a man in a truck pulls in at a rather high speed for the turn he was making and almost clipped our heels. I was kinda shocked! And MAD! But, Ellie and I are safe and that's what's important. Ellie didn't seem phased by it at all which is good.
3 comments:
Your post had so much good info about how to work on dog distraction, stuff that I just have never thought to do--like going back and forth by fences with barking dogs behind them. I usually just go by once and hope Cabana doesn't pull too much! Seems like such a no-brainer now, but it just never occurred to me. I can't wait to incorporate some of your techniques on our next outing!!
Good Girl Ellie! Dog distraction is still a weakpoint for her long distance boyfriend... but you have inspired me to put forth some extra effort in the next week!
And good grief about that crazy driver!!!
Yay Ellie! I'm so glad she's improving in her distractability. That's one issue I'm hoping my next dog doesn't have.
Yikes! Wonder where that guy was looking, because it doesn't sound like he was looking in front of him.
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