Natalie Haycock

So this week I was kind of in a slump. I really wanted to work with Jerzey in a crowd of people, but I got quarantined AGAIN! I really wish this would just all go away and life would be normal again! This week, I worked with Jerzey out at spotted eagle since it was so nice out and brought him to my mom's work. I feel like I do the same things over and over again! I feel so restricted! But anyways, it has been good that Jerzey and I have been doing the same things over again so he can perfect those certain commands that we do. This week was very similar to last week. Jerzey was still very stressed out this week and it showed. He struggled listening to me. I don't like saying the same command more than once at a time and he was pushing his limits to this. Even though he struggled listening, he ended up listening with a little bit of a bribe with treats. This week, on our walks at spotted eagle, I would bring my mom. Previously I did this...

To start off, I will answer a question someone had in my previous blog. The question was if Jerzey listens to me if I command him to come back. Yes, Jerzey does listen if I command him to come back. He will come back and walk with me for a little while and then will run again. A request from someone was to snap to get his attention. I have done this since he was a puppy. He does listen to the snap, but snapping does not help with having all of his attention to me. It will help in the moment, but not the whole time. I want Jerzey to just focus on me and not everything that is around him all of the time. So this week Jerzey and I worked out at the fairgrounds and my backyard. Like I said last week, my challenge for this week was to walk Jerzey without his training collar and just use his regular collar. I would walk a lap with him around the fairgrounds with him on his leash and then I would walk a lap with him and just let him run. This was very cold,...

To start off, I will answer some questions. One question that was brought up was how have I followed my action plan so far. So far, I believe I have been following my action plan well. There have been weeks, though, where it was impossible for me to accomplish what I needed to because of me being in quarantine and other students being in quarantine. All in all, Jerzey and I have done all of the skills that were on my action plan and have even perfected some! Another question was how much time I spend a week training him. This all depends on what I am doing. On average, per day, I spend at least 30 minutes training him. The last question I had was why I give Jerzey anxiety treats. I give Jerzey anxiety treats to help calm him down on our walks. This helps him tramendously. Okay now that we've got some questions cleared up I will start on my blog! So last week I was unsuccessful in that Youtube video. Jerzey, as well as my other dogs, got excited when they ...