Scout is still young and needs monitoring in the house. At her age, if she is doing something naughty and you are not there to interrupt the behavior and redirect her, that naughty behavior gets reinforced. It's almost like giving her a cookie or a piece of cheese every time she does something she's not suppose to. And a girl can only get by on her extreme cuteness for so long...
Ideally, you are able to catch dogs when they are thinking about doing something naughty. It's the easiest time to interrupt the behavior.
A well taught "leave it" or a simple "no" or even a recall can prevent her from stealing something from the table. If she chooses abort her mission to steal the treats, that deserves a whole lot of praise and even a reward. It's a really big deal for a dog to choose to leave something so valuable. It's important to make it worthwhile for them to do so.
Sometimes, though, our timing is off or she ignores a request. At this point, even if she doesn't get the treats on the table, she is still getting rewarded by being able to look to see what is on the table. Clapping your hands and moving towards her while you say "ah ah ah" in a normal tone of voice will prevent her from getting anything off the table and she should get praise when she's doing the appropriate behavior (all feet on the ground) but no treat for that one. So, if you're not there to see her getting on the counter, even if there is nothing for her to take, she is still reinforcing that behavior and she is more likely to do it again in the future.
We got lots of "drop" practice in today because she's finally playing with the toys! It's normal for dogs to feel a little uncomfortable in new environments but it's clear she's feeling comfortable now. So comfortable, in fact, that she's starting to swipe things like paper. She's done really well with her drop and she's come right to me when I called her after she had absconded with something of mine.
Those recalls are coming in handy! Good thing we've been practicing that or I might have lost my laminating pouches.
And look who remembered to sit at the door before being let in without a cue! Good girl Scout!!
Jessie met a new friend today. This is the first dog she's really shown an interest in. I teased her that it was because I finally brought in a dog that was closer to her color. I found it interesting that Brutus was the dog she seemed to like. He's like the other service pups in training here. They are all pretty mellow and for the most part leave the dogs alone except maybe an occasional sniff. But for some reason she really took a shine to him.
With the other dogs she does fine but you can tell it stresses her out a bit. She will periodically to a shake off where her whole body shakes (like a dog would do when she's wet) which is a calming signal and indicates stress. You can also tell by her other body language. She carries her body low, her ears are back, and she leans away from the other dogs. Another really clear indicator that she's not enjoying herself is when Scout is trying to engage her in play and you call Scout off, Jessie moves away from Scout. If she were enjoying herself, she would move towards Scout and try to engage her in play again. And the really clear indicator that she's not fond of Scout's rough play style is that she gets snarly and snapping with her.
So play with other dogs is not a super enjoyable thing for Jessie. That's not uncommon for dogs her age. But what she truly, truly loves is one on one time with people. Suddenly you see her tail up and wagging in a happy manner and her ears are perked up. But mostly what you notice is that she tries to engage you and doesn't try to avoid you likes she does with a dog who is trying to play with her. I'm happy to oblige her. She is a very sweet girl and loads of fun to be around.
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