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!