Week #2 Reflection

                                                                    5.21.23 // 8:00 pm

This week Ray and I have made giant leaps in his training. He was finally ready to practice his skills in more distractive environments and we tried to take advantage of every opportunity to do so possible. We also started specific good dog citizenship training and working on the areas he needs the most improvement on. Ray also perfected his down and place which I am very proud of. We are still working on more showy tricks but his functional actions (tricks necessary for him to fit in my life) are going amazing. His leash walking has gotten pristine although he still needs to practice with other dogs nearby. 

I am truly so proud of his progress. He has even gotten over his wariness of children! Besides nailing down and place, there is a few big achievements that I am proud of Ray for. One is how he handled himself when we were working in Terry’s classroom with Gunner. He was really focused on me and did extremely well. Another is he quietly sat through the whole Jazz Rock Concert without barking. He also sat during softball practice at my feet and did not move from his down/stay command. At puppy class, Dee complemented his skills and how well he listened to come. He also played really well with the dogs there. Just in general he is improving so much and I am surprised by how he learns tricks. I do not know why he does not understand what I am asking until one time he just gets it and does the trick perfectly. I truly have no idea what happens in his mind. 

I think that we will not get his Good Dog Citizenship tomorrow afternoon but I do think Dee’s evaluation will show that he is close and that he has improved drastically as at the beginning of the senior project he was not able to do any of the requirements.

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