I did separate walks today. Both dogs cried and cried as I left with the other, which I thought was irritating considering they had in their possession an amazing yogurt-milkbone-hotdog kong. Gustav and I snuck back within earshot to make sure Dottie had quit crying since the neighbor guy was shoveling and I didn't want him annoyed by loud barking. She had stopped, or was at least quiet enough that neither me nor the neighbor could hear her.
Dottie and I had a lovely time playing frisbee. These times make me a little sad, because having one dog is easy. But I remember when we just had Dottie, and she was a bit of a wreck. So I know it's better.
Gustav and I barely got a block because of our "quality, not quantity" focus. We stood about half a block from a lady shoveling, making for a perfect pilot study of the CAT procedure. Gustav got fixated, then looked up at me for treats. I jackpotted him. This went on and on, but I didn't see any signs of relaxation to reward him for. By reward I mean briskly walking away from the woman. Lots of good CC, no CAT. The lady eventually had shoveled her driveway completely and went home. We repeated this idea with a guy with a snowblower, who said hello and I told him I was training my dog because he's afraid of people and he asked if he could come over and I said no, he's the mean kind of afraid. The guy said that's ok I have a dog. Gustav did not visibly relax for this guy either.
Great, consistent CCing, though, even though we didn't make it very far.
It was practice night and my dogs love everyone in the band and Gustav solicited lots of petting and nobody even thought about barking as they came in. The dogs, that is. Gustav was super relaxed and draped himself all over Christian's feet and got good behind-the-ear petting from all three boys. It made me really happy.
Times over threshold: 0, although Gustav let out a little woof at the snowblower guy when he talked to me. Talking is definitely a trigger.
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