Saturday, January 9, 2010

You Go Girl!

Since I learned to give appropriate "collar corrections," Stacy has been a joy to take on walks. I don't think Stacy much likes the corrections, but they say very clearly that whatever is going in needs to be changed. And when she correctly changes the behavior, she is warmly rewarded with "Good girl" comments.

Although our walks are limited to going around one or two blocks, Stacy seems to be much happier now. Part of that is the amount of positive reinforcement I can give her. "Good girl" is a well-deserved and frequently overheard comment on our walks. That is, when I'm not saying "Good puppy" for variety.

Oh, she still likes to go after beauty bark and fallen leaves, but when she is hearing all those "Good girls" she seems content to leave most of those leaves alone.

We still need to work on overcoming a few distractions -- loud motorcycles being one, unknown humans on foot or bicycle being the other.

I can't wait for her to wake up from her nap so that I can say, "Stacy, Let's Go."

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