Ole and the long line

Thursday was not a very exciting day for Ole. He did get to go to daycare so that was good but I had a lot of things to get done in the house before Denny gets started laying down the new bedroom floor. Elmo to the rescue as usual, played nicely with his big galumpus of a puppy. Oh, Ole did get to go back in to Noah's to get his nails buffed. I'm still taking him in freguently to get him use to the whole trim the nails thing. This time , I had Shelly and Elmo sit in the nail room with Ole to help settle him down. They enjoyed because they got some bacon or cream cheese from Tess so apparently he calmed down quickly with his two mentors present and relaxed. I did some leash training with Ole later on and decided to start some serious longline control training with him on Friday.

Friday: I took Ole on an individual walk over to the oceanside this morning. He enjoyed it, got to dig in the sand, chase sand flies and wrestle with clumps of seaweed. He also met a few people and their kids which was what I always hope for. After breakfast I took all 3 dogs to Fiesta Island and put Ole on a 20 foot long leash while Shelly and Elmo got to run off leash. I practiced Easy, Wait , and Come with Ole. For the Easy command I start walking with Ole next to me and drop the long line, as soon as he moves away from me in any direction, I say EASY and then step on the leash. He slows down and I pat my leg and say LET'S GO . I repeat this until he begins to listen to what I am saying and slows down and stays closer to me rather than run off brainlessly. For WAIT, I say WAIT and then pivot in front of him as we are walking to block him from moving forward. My goal is to be able some day to say WAIT when he is 20 yards or more from me and he will stop and wait for my next instruction. For COME, I let him wander away from me and then say OLE, COME. If he comes to me great, lots of praise and fun and a go play as rewards, if no come, I step on the long line and then give it a pretty good tug toward me and drop it , if that doesn't get him moving toward me I repeat until he does what I ask him to do. It is a safety net and teaches him over time that he does have to come to me no matter what. i also played hide and seek with all 3 dogs. After that we went home, had some lunch and then went over to GiGi's house in Point Loma for a , as Dorie called it "Bully stick and water party". No bully sticks were eaten but Ole had a terrific time chasing around after GiGi . Elmo spent most of the time obcessing over a latex squeeky ball and Shelly carefully monitored the situation. Elmo did play but he let GiGi wear out Ole. It was probably a nice break for him. I took some photos but Shelly freaked out at the camera flash so I had to stop.
Once we got home Abner arrived with a van full of the wood planks for our floor ,so Ole got to spend quality nap time in the crate while Abner and I carried all of the wood into the house and stacked it. Denny is starting on the floor tomorrow..YEA!!!
Once the floor is done then we will have to sand it and polyurethane it. Not my favorite job but anything just about is easier than painting ceilings. Hopefully we can move back into the bedroom in 2 weeks if we're lucky . After dinner and bones (for the dogs), I took Ole on another longline training walk down the beach in front of our house. Once again we practiced Easy and Come and he got to meet a couple of young boys and also got to practice sitting to greet a bunch of young 20 something girls. We practiced for about 30 minutes walking around and I also broke it up letting him play and dig. He saw a white plastic chair about 30 feet from him on the beach and started barking at it with his scruff raised. He was concerned about it., so I said nothing just let him investigate it and once he realized it was nothing to be concerned about I briefly and calmly praised him for being so brave. The rule is: If you make a big deal over something that your dog is concerned about , it becomes a big deal.