The One With All the Training
Boy, do I have a lot of training to talk about. Yesterday, I worked with all three dogs, Fenway on down and down-stay, Chubbs on loose-leash walking, sit-stay and down-stay and Muggsy on down-stay, Door! and muzzle. Fenway did very well when she was by herself. She doesn't like to do downs around my big dogs, but once I got her alone, she did downs and stayed very well. Chubbs is struggling with loose-leash walking around distractions, but he does well otherwise. There were two loose dogs on our walking path and I could not get him to pay attention to me on that block. It was very frustrating. I'm working with him on stays because I want to learn agility with him and my boss told me that I could bring him to classes with me if he could do a good down-stay with a backtie so that he can just relax while I work with my customers. That could be a fun way for him to get some alone time from Muggsy, so I want to work on that. Now, onto Muggsy...
Muggsy's Training Diary, Days 32-33
June 17-18
Yesterday, I worked with muzzle on Muggsy and he was less than excited to have me putting it on, as usual. He did very well though with me being a little forceful. It takes less than a minute now. After I work Door!, I then take him out for a quick jog (I'm in terrible shape and can't go very far), and he seems to really enjoy that. Since Door! has been going so well, we only review that and just spend time keeping the muzzle on. I ended the day just doing some down-stays with him so he can continue to work on his obedience.
Today, my boss came over to see how we were doing with muzzle and Door! I put the muzzle on before she got there because I'm not sure he would let me do it with a new person in the house. She thought Door! was so good that would should be trying it behind a different door. He even did it perfectly with her standing in the room and the muzzle on. So we moved it to the front door in the space before the bookshelf that now stands against his crate. This was much more stressful for him since it was a new situation and a new person. He was huffing and puffing, but he did a couple of good repetitions. My boss said I'm about two weeks away from practicing at the vet. I'm going to call and discuss this with a practioner at the place we chose on Monday. We want to make sure they are receptive to us coming to practice and using our method before we committ the $425 it will cost to get all this done -- plus lab costs. My boss told me not to reward Muggsy when the muzzle came off because then I'm making it seem like the muzzle is such a terrible thing. I had never thought of that and will now switch my method. I had to wait until 5 minutes after she left to remove the muzzle and then pretend it was no big deal and ignore him for awhile. I did all of that and practiced Door! with him again this evening. He did pretty well with the muzzle off and treats coming through the door. Since it's a new door, we have to start from scratch. I hope he gets used to it like the other one. In the meantime, we can now move the dresser back to the bedroom, making room for our new AC when it comes.
Job Search 2005
I applied for two new jobs today, one that's basically the same thing I do but at another water district. I've applied for about 15 jobs now. Hopefully, I'll get one of these. I'm getting really tired of working for Joanna. She did let me leave at 4:30 Friday, but I wasted it by talking to these guys at work I actually like. Who says I'm not social?
I was talking to the guy who finds my life so fascinating because my childhood didn't involve drive-by shootings and gang fights. He was asking me all of these stereotypes from movies he saw about small Midwest towns as a child. The stereotypes were all right on. It was actually very funny. But turns out, he spent his childhood wishing that he was living my life because his was so hard. He'd always wanted to have a porch swing and sit with his grandma and get drunk at the old abandoned house and all that stuff. It's so interesting to me what others think of your life when it's so different from their own. I never thought an intelligent Mexican man would want to live in a small Midwestern town. :) He can't believe I would want to move to L.A. But he did say that I was very brave to do all the things I had done in my life. That made me feel good since he survived a drive-by shooting!
What he did is even more amazing. A Hispanic male has a 38 percent chance of graduating from high school in the United States. When he did it, it was a 27 percent chance. It was a .5 percent chance that he would get his Masters and he did. Most Hispanic males never come that far. Now he has a great job and investments and everything else. What he accomplished is amazing. I don't think we stop and give enough credit to what minorities have to overcome to be successful in this country. It's a tough struggle and those who make it really deserve our respect. Those who aren't as successful as my colleague also deserve our respect. Many of them are struggling to learn a new language and keep a job. That's also impressive. Just my two cents. Good-night!
Muggsy's Training Diary, Days 32-33
June 17-18
Yesterday, I worked with muzzle on Muggsy and he was less than excited to have me putting it on, as usual. He did very well though with me being a little forceful. It takes less than a minute now. After I work Door!, I then take him out for a quick jog (I'm in terrible shape and can't go very far), and he seems to really enjoy that. Since Door! has been going so well, we only review that and just spend time keeping the muzzle on. I ended the day just doing some down-stays with him so he can continue to work on his obedience.
Today, my boss came over to see how we were doing with muzzle and Door! I put the muzzle on before she got there because I'm not sure he would let me do it with a new person in the house. She thought Door! was so good that would should be trying it behind a different door. He even did it perfectly with her standing in the room and the muzzle on. So we moved it to the front door in the space before the bookshelf that now stands against his crate. This was much more stressful for him since it was a new situation and a new person. He was huffing and puffing, but he did a couple of good repetitions. My boss said I'm about two weeks away from practicing at the vet. I'm going to call and discuss this with a practioner at the place we chose on Monday. We want to make sure they are receptive to us coming to practice and using our method before we committ the $425 it will cost to get all this done -- plus lab costs. My boss told me not to reward Muggsy when the muzzle came off because then I'm making it seem like the muzzle is such a terrible thing. I had never thought of that and will now switch my method. I had to wait until 5 minutes after she left to remove the muzzle and then pretend it was no big deal and ignore him for awhile. I did all of that and practiced Door! with him again this evening. He did pretty well with the muzzle off and treats coming through the door. Since it's a new door, we have to start from scratch. I hope he gets used to it like the other one. In the meantime, we can now move the dresser back to the bedroom, making room for our new AC when it comes.
Job Search 2005
I applied for two new jobs today, one that's basically the same thing I do but at another water district. I've applied for about 15 jobs now. Hopefully, I'll get one of these. I'm getting really tired of working for Joanna. She did let me leave at 4:30 Friday, but I wasted it by talking to these guys at work I actually like. Who says I'm not social?
I was talking to the guy who finds my life so fascinating because my childhood didn't involve drive-by shootings and gang fights. He was asking me all of these stereotypes from movies he saw about small Midwest towns as a child. The stereotypes were all right on. It was actually very funny. But turns out, he spent his childhood wishing that he was living my life because his was so hard. He'd always wanted to have a porch swing and sit with his grandma and get drunk at the old abandoned house and all that stuff. It's so interesting to me what others think of your life when it's so different from their own. I never thought an intelligent Mexican man would want to live in a small Midwestern town. :) He can't believe I would want to move to L.A. But he did say that I was very brave to do all the things I had done in my life. That made me feel good since he survived a drive-by shooting!
What he did is even more amazing. A Hispanic male has a 38 percent chance of graduating from high school in the United States. When he did it, it was a 27 percent chance. It was a .5 percent chance that he would get his Masters and he did. Most Hispanic males never come that far. Now he has a great job and investments and everything else. What he accomplished is amazing. I don't think we stop and give enough credit to what minorities have to overcome to be successful in this country. It's a tough struggle and those who make it really deserve our respect. Those who aren't as successful as my colleague also deserve our respect. Many of them are struggling to learn a new language and keep a job. That's also impressive. Just my two cents. Good-night!
posted by Rachel at
9:33 PM
1 Comments:
It is interesting to share with someone who is so different than you. Drive-by shootings is something you never experienced on the farm, except when Steve Kraft was out hunting coyotes. My dad and his family came to this country with absolutely nothing and were able to pull themselves up into the economic upper middle class. But then their skin was white. One of my dad's best playmates as a boy was an African American whose family had probably been in this country for 200 years. He never had the opportunities my dad did. He was one of the ones, though, that taught my dad "English". Only what he told my dad the words meant, wasn't exactly what the words meant. Dad got in big trouble a few times before he realized what he was really saying to people.
By
Diana, at 7:58 AM
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