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Old July 1st, 2010, 03:40 PM
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serenamlambe serenamlambe is offline
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: Ottawa
Posts: 522
Thanks for the advice, luckypenny. I will definitely follow your suggestions.

I have been doing touching exercises with her everyday, with and without treats. I use the term "massage" to describe a "full body" massage, I guess, that takes about 3 to 5 minutes. She's always quite good during these things. But yes, I have been briefly touching her collar, touching ears, picking her up, and rewarding her when she is good. I'll continue to do this.

Since she started protesting to being picked up/having her collar held, I've been trying to handle her a lot more. And I have noticed that she is becoming happier about it. She seems to approach me a lot more and wants to come up on the bed/couch with me. It might be that I am spending more time home now, too, as I am off on summer holidays.

And since she has been going on walks more, she is more keen to sit still for the leash to go on. She's quick to catch on! She's only growled once today - first when I picked her up this morning. But since then has been good about the touching.

As for the training classes, I will try to look into some other ones to sit in on. We're doing a class at PetSmart (only because it was the closest place to where we live and the only place we could walk to or take a cheap cab ride to) and it's based on positive reinforcement. We have been doing the marker/reward training, as far as I can tell. She has just mentioned the shake can or water bottle for corrections, along with a verbal correction. We haven't physically manipulated the dogs, but instead have used treats to help guide them to lie down or sit or whatnot. Hopefully we're doing the right things!

Again, thanks for the help
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