All Smiles When Susie Is Around

Well, it’s Susie’s last week here and her inmate trainer says that he’s really going to miss her.   He says that looking back and seeing how much she’s learned brings a smile to his face.  

Susie’s favorite commands are “bed” and “jump”.  If she walks by a bed she wants to lay down and get comfortable.  She’s happy to lie there and let you pet her while she relaxes the day away.  With jump she just seems to have fun with it., Add a yummy treat to the command and you’ll have yourself an eager beaver… errrr greyhound.

Special Girl

Susie has had a great and exciting week. This was the week when all of the trainers swap dogs to see how well they do with someone new, and Susie did so well. She's so beautiful and soft, like silk to the touch. She is an amazing dog and enjoys lying on her bed and getting all the attention possible. She enjoys playing with her toys, and is very treat-motivated! She also enjoys having her training sessions, and is so curious about everything. She is going to make a great addition to any home. Her swap week trainer said that he had a great week with her and is so grateful he got to spend time with this special girl!

Always Time For Attention

Susie did her commands with someone completely new this week AND in front of a group! Her inmate trainer says that she did really well. She even preformed “stay” in front of everyone!  Her inmate trainer was able to walk away from her and go out of sight before coming back to her.  She didn’t move from her position until “released”!  Huge improvement and lots of praise and treats for a job well done!  Her inmate trainer says he couldn’t be more proud of her right now.  

Susie is a girl who is full of joy and happiness.  Watching her try to catch flies and gnats out of the air is very amusing.  Her inmate warns her not to go after any jalapeno poppers (wasp/bees).   She loves to have her belly rubbed and if you’ve got attention to give she’s got time.   Her inmate trainer says that he knows that Susie is going to bring a lot of happiness to her new forever home. 

Sweet Susie Can "Sit"

Susie sat on her own this week!!  That’s right, all by herself with no help! Her inmate trainer says that when the greys learn their commands you can’t help but smile and feel happiness over their accomplishment.  Training involves being patient, allowing the dog to learn at it’s own pace, and disciplined enough to repeat the commands helping them learn and feel accomplished. 

Susie’s inmate trainer says that knowing that a family will be adopting Suzie and giving her a wonderful forever home is a future worth training for! 

Worth The Wait

Susie has come a long ways over the past 6 weeks. She is a really greyt dog and you can’t help but fall in love with her. She’s a happy girl and you can see her happiness when you bring out the stuffed toys. Her tail starts to wag.

Training is going well and she is improving every day with her commands. Her two challenging ones are “sit” and “down”, so her trainers are working extra hard on these. They are confident she will have them mastered long before graduation. Susie’s trainer said she has been a joy to train and he’s glad to be a part of this wonderful program. Everyone deserves a second chance.

Bed Commander

This week, Susie did even better on “bed” during testing. For a while, her trainer could not leave her sight without her trying to follow him! But this week, he was able to leave her sight and even walk around the dorm to come back and find her still on the bed. It is now one of her favorite commands. Her trainer couldn't help but smile when he watched her follow someone else who had a bed. As soon as it was laid down in the day room, she went down and laid right on it! It is what she wants to do as soon as she sees an open bed.

She is becoming more comfortable around the people in the dorm, the noises, and her environment as a whole. Her trainer is sure that although it is a big change from her life at the racetrack, she will do really well in her new home. Susis also did really well going up and down the stairs this week. No hesitation at all! What a good girl.

Well, this is all for this week, so stay tuned for more of her adventures!

Tail Wagging Kind Of Girl

Susie loves to run in the yard with her pals.  She runs around with her tail wagging with happiness.  Her inmate trainer says you can just see her come alive when she’s playing and running.  She loves toys too!  Her enthusiasm is not only contagious but entertaining as well.  

She’s doing really well with training.  This week she did a practice test in front of the entire dorm and she breezed through it like a champ.  So far her favorite command is “jump”.  She learned it in about 20 mins and hasn’t had a problem since.  Her second favorite is “bed”.  This may be because of the amount of attention and treats she gets. They’re working on “stay” as her inmate trainer walks out of sight.  She’s doing well, but has some room for improvement.  She’s also a big fan of “here”.  They’ve made it a game where her inmate trainer runs away then calls “here” and she’ll come bouncing happily with her tail wagging.   

Suzie is the kind of girl that warms up slowly to new people.  She likes to think it over before she hands her trust out, but once she warms up to you she opens up and your blessed with all this sweet girl has to offer.  

Is That A Squeaky Toy I Hear?

This week Susie was introduced to toys! At first she didn’t know what to do with them.  She’d sniff them then go back to bed and lay down…. Until she heard one squeak.  That noise got her attention! Her inmate trainer tossed the toy, and she pounced on it with delight.  She picked the toy up in her mouth gleefully slinging it around and decided to lay in her bed chewing on it.  Now she loves to have her trainer toss the toy so she can run after it.  Her inmate trainer gets two toys and tosses the second as soon as she returns with the first one.  She doesn’t seem to mind when her inmate trainer takes the toy from her.  She just gives her trainer a look like okay, but when you gonna give it back? 

Susie’s inmate trainer says that she’s a great girl!  Toy play helps her have fun on rainy days and helps with training too.  She’s doing well with all of her commands and her trainer plans to continue working on all the basics until her response times are stellar.  

Chugging Right Along

This week, with Ms. Susie Q, she and her trainer focused on getting her to respond to the bed command. They take a day bed and put it in the training room where it’s nice and quiet with few distractions. Then, he lets her off leash and puts dog food on the bed. She realizes soon that all she has to do is go to the bed to get the food! Then it’s just a waiting game to see how long it takes for them to lie down. For Susie, it did not take long at all. They have been practicing this command using her kennel as well, giving her treats as soon as she lies down and saying “bed” at the same time.

Her trainer gets her to eat her food at least once a day on the day bed somewhere in the dorm; this helps her get used to eating around noise and distractions. Her new environment is a lot different from the track and takes some getting used to!

The next part of learning the bed command is getting her to lie down on the bed as well as be able to walk away from the bed without her getting up to follow, or until you say “release.” That always takes time, and she is doing a lot better already during week two. Slow and steady wins the race!

That’s all for this week – we hope you stay tuned for more next week!

Feed me by Hand, and my Heart is Yours!

Susie had a busy few days this week! Her first day, she got to experience all types of new sights, sounds and smells. It is a lot for anyone, whether they’re on two legs or four.

Susie wanted to sniff and explore everything – but first, a bath! She got checked for ticks, weighed, and had her ears cleaned. That’s a lot in one day, but she had no trouble with it.

After relaxing for a little while, her trainer walked her around and introduced her to her new home for the next 10 weeks. She explored the dorm, getting familiar with her new surroundings. Then it was time to eat!

Her trainer has been hand-feeding her for the past several days; at first, she was hesitant to take food from his hand, so he had to put it on her bed in her kennel and eventually laid his hand flat on the bed. She now eats out of his hand with no hesitation! The reason they hand-feed the dogs for the first few days is so they can build a bond with the dog. They know food comes from their trainer, they learn to trust him, and then his scent is on their food. That helps a ton during training!

Her trainer has only been with her for a week, but he would like to share a suggestion based on what he has observed so far: for the first few days, let everyone in your household take turns feeding her by hand. This will help get her used to all of you and build trust between her and everyone in your family.

As far as commands, they have been working on simple ones like “let’s go!” Getting her to walk beside him and not ahead of him is another task they’ve been working to master. That way she knows that he is the one leading and not her.

Hope you stay tuned for more of her adventures with toys, commands, people and her new surroundings!