Long story here . . . We learned from watching @Amanda Taulborg to start early with cone desensitization before spay/neuter surgeries. Saffy is scheduled for late Jan so we pulled out some old cone to start working on it. Well we had to jump right in instead. She was running and playing and some how tore up her wrist (carpal?) pad. We got some vet wrap and vet spray and got it wrapped up. Of course she wouldn’t leave that alone so . . . Cone emersion time.🫣. We did some really quick training with sniffing it first, moving to very loosely wrapping it around with treat reward, wrapping a little tighter and then just having to secure it. She was having a hard with her perception and wanting to move around. So this is where the video starts . . . It was meal time and she didn’t want to try to eat out of her bowl either so we did some spot work to help with space awareness , we did some off camera place work with sniffing. After that she showed interest in her bowl, so she got the rest of her food in her bowl!🙂. A little later she got a drink on her own.🤩🥳. One thing she wasn’t doing was laying down, but while typing this she figured that out. (Picture). Certainly not the ideal way to do cone desensitization but she is doing pretty well. Thank you Amanda for ALL of the training and videos that we were able to apply in this very fast paced ‘emergency’ situation!!!!!!! We were so much better prepared to help her adjust vs in the past just having to throw it on and trying to figure what to do to help them. Past experiences and your training helped us be chill about it, which as we have been discussing in the fear posts, helped her. Thank you again!🙏🏻🙏🏻

Saffy and I went to Target to get a few things while Dad was at an appointment. She did well with the cart walking next to me and tucking into a proper heel behind the cart when customers or aisles were near. At the checkout, she did a wonderful front/down/stay while I checked out and loaded the cart. We went and picked up Dad and went to Lowes for more training. She did well even with big noises on the aisle behind her. (Reminded me of when she was a tiny puppy during class in the lumber aisles and someone dropped a bunch of wood and she barely flinched) 😅😊. We took the opportunity to make more noise of own! We did some food on the floor leave it. She looked at it longing a time or two but did a wonderful leave it. When we left the store a big rumbling diesel tow truck arrived and the air brakes scared her. So off we went to be by the truck. She was scared but worked her way to sitting and heeling near it. Such a big brave girl!! Was so proud! She got extra special treats when we got to the safety of the car! We forgot a Dad length leash so Mom got extra training time. 😂

Saffy had her first heat so we have been not been able to train for a bit. She lost some of scary noise bravado so . . . We worked on refreshing her staying during scary times and checking out the scary noise. This is just a little bit of our work. She got good free dogs, praise, and of course treats. Also some work on “off” using stairs because she kept running up on the bed to get away. Made her use the stairs to come back to a down and to check out the vacuum

We were having fun playing outside and we got in few minutes of ‘fun’ training! We did stay while tossing a ball back and forth around/over Saffy. She stayed really well! Dad also worked on snuggle which I got a picture of. The love they have makes my heart smile!😍. Pippa the cat got some ‘outside’ exploring time . As she is an indoor cat, this is as close as she gets to being outside. They did pretty well together outside too!

Now that Bruno is settled in, I worked on some obedience with him this morning! Just ran through some heel, sit, and stay, and started introducing “down” too. Rewatching the video, I know I forgot to mark with “yes” a few times… 🤦🏼‍♀️ I’ve been a handler for 4 1/2 years and I still make mistakes! I already know how to fix that for next time which is the important part! I also tried luring him around me into a heel and also luring from a down to a sit, but I think we’re too early in the game for those skills so I won’t worry about that for now. Overall; he did great! He got distracted once because he could see my mom inside but he redirected well. Heel is hard for me to train since my left side is my blind side, so my mom is going to work on tbat with him. With Atlas, since his head is in a different spot than a non-mobility dog’s heel would be, I can see him and know he’s in the correct spot. The others get a little out of my peripheral vision. Did I do kind of the right thing for “down”? I remember watching @Sherry Smith and Mingo (omg I LOVE Mingo, Sherry please hug him for me) when Mingo was just a little baby working on down at a training class when Atlas na dI were in college, so my memory was 4 years old… I wasn’t sure when to stand up straight or if I should really be luring with food or just stepping on the leash and pointing… feedback welcome! Moral of the story: even experienced handlers mess up sometimes and it’s totally ok to make a mistake or not know what to do. Amanda is the bestttt and will give advice and tips!