Every night at bedtime I give A.J. a treat. I used to give it to him to get him into his crate for the night. I stopped making him stay in the crate, but every night he still runs in there and waits for his treat. The other night I decided he needed to do …
Tag: crate training
A.J. Has a Very Long Weekend
June 9, 2014 A.J. had a very long, busy weekend. Greg's niece invited him to walk in the Relay for Life in Richland, WA Friday night/Saturday morning, and he really wanted to go. The relay is a walk around a track that goes all night, from about 7:00 PM to 8:00 AM. His niece said she’d …
A.J. Goes to Overnight Camp
March 22, 2014 A.J. had his first stay at a boarding facility. He went to Doodle Dogs for the first time while Greg and I went to visit family. A.J. was there for a week. It sounded like he did well and had a nice time, but I don’t think he slept much. He was really …
A.J. Goes to Dance Class
January 7, 2014 This mail was sent today to everyone in our Reactive Dog class from Mary, our trainer: "I wanted to share with you just what a star AJ was in the Canine Freestyle Class yesterday. He came into a building with two moving dogs, was a little noisy but quickly settled down, got …
My Jekyll and Hyde Dog
Note: This journal entry occurred shortly before my relationship with A.J. hit an all-time low. His leash aggression/reactive issues were making it impossible to walk him; that and our training regimen were making it very difficult to get this energetic young dog the exercise he needed. We were going through some serious growing pains at …
A.J. Goes to Bad Dog School
November 4, 2013 I enrolled A.J. in a Reactive Dog class. Yesterday was our first class. There were seven people with their crazy dogs. Mary said by the last class all the dogs would be on their mats while one handler weaved her dog through the mats. We all laughed. A.J. cried through most of …
Crate Training Take 2
November 2, 2013 I’ve been crate-training A.J. for about the last month. It’s been very slow. He behaves more like a wild dog; he doesn’t even like to be in the house, let alone shut in a crate. And our first foray into the crate wound up with a bent-up crate and a dog outside …
Crate Destruction
July 31, 2013 Sigh. Today was a tough one. We had to leave early to ride into town for my volunteer work this morning. I got A.J. to walk into his crate on his own by throwing a couple of treats into the back corner. He went in and ate the treats and I closed the …
New Home, Day 5
July 30, 2013 A.J. was up periodically throughout the night again, but he wasn’t coughing. I’d wake up occasionally wondering where he was, but he didn’t seem to be doing any damage. Around 4 AM he came over and I petted him for a little while. At 6:00 he was up. Greg got up and …
Week One Continues
July 29, 2013 We all got a good night’s sleep last night. I didn’t have to chase A.J. off the bed even once, he just laid down on his own bed. He slept until 4 AM, at which time I just petted him for a little while and he curled back up and went to …
AJ the Springer 