Gypsy!

I love this girlie!  She is SO much fun.  She's fun to train, she's fun to play with, she's fun to watch with the other dogs and she's just plain fun to be around.  She is very intelligent and picks up on things so quickly, it's a big scary!  

I am still trying to find her food motivation.  Right now, she's far more motivated by play and toys.  And that's okay, since I'd rather build food drive than toy drive.  But it makes it hard to do so shaping exercises when she doesn't want treats.  But we'll get there, Rival was the same way and now he loves his cookies.

I am auditing the Max Pup class at Agility U and also signed up for Silvia Trkman's puppy foundation class which starts on the 26th.  I am so excited about that one!  We've had lots of homework for the Max Pup class so far.  We've been working on:

1. Restrained recalls- she's a wild banshee and always wants to race and run with me now

2. Races to the toy - she only lost once and now is always faster than me

3. Shaping all sorts of different behaviors

4. Crate games (still working on driving into the crate)

5.  It's Yer Choice - pretty easy right now since she's not super food motivated

6. Collar grabs

7. Tug-sit-tug

8. Downs

9. Switching between toys

10.  Basic housetraining and manners

Gypsy still lives in the gate community in the kitchen/dining room.  She's in the pen when I am at work but when we are home she gets the full area.  And she travels from room to room with me, but only with certain other dogs.  I still don't trust that she'll have only positive experiences with some of the other dogs in the house, so I am being ultra careful.  I have given her a few minutes a day with some of the "puppy unfriendly" dogs and I can see she's pretty smart already.  She gives Bliss a wide berth!!!  But until I know that she can handle things emotionally and has passed fear periods, it's my job to protect her.  I want her to have really great social skills as an adult.  

Plus, I really want to make sure that she bonds more to me than the other dogs.  She already thinks that Rival, Rave and Stash are great fun and has a strong bond with them.  But I need to ensure that her desire to play with the other dogs doesn't ever supercede her desire to play with me.

She got to watch Rival and Rave do some agility yesterday, and I can already see that I am going to have to work hard to keep her quiet while watching the other dogs work.  She was going crazy, screaming and trying to break out of the expen.  Actually I started out with her baby gated on the front deck and she squeezed herself under the railing and jump off!

Gypsy also very much enjoyed her first trip to the beach.  She jumped right in the waves and didn't care at all that she was getting hit by them.  In fact, on Sunday I threw a ball for the big dogs and she tried to dive right in and go out with them---but I called her back as the surf was too rough for a little munchkin.  She and Stash played major chase games on the beach and had so much fun.  Gypsy also played chase games with me and was more than happy to tug on a leash when I forgot to bring a toy.  She was a rockstar in the trailer and had no potty accidents.  And she traveled in the car like a champ.

She's finally sleeping through the night!  And this morning was the very first time she told me that she needed to go outside to potty!  Such a good girlie.  

Yup, love my baby girl!!!