Training: "Down" and lots of other things

Yay! We had another visit from our dog trainer Renee aka. the treat lady. She gave mom more things to do with us and we will get treats and praise for them! Yay!

Now, back to mom for the boring stuff. (((yaaawn))) Guinn and I are gonna go back to napping now after this long day.

A couple of things:

• Pick up the food bowls when the boys are done eating. We usually leave the empty bowls and although they are fed separately, they will go lick the others bowl.
  
• Order DAP online.
• Buy Rescue Remedy from a local vitamen store. Give the boys 4 drops/3x times daily.
• Tell Guinness "leave it" if he tries to eat tootsie rolls, but praise him for it. Don't treat him for it.
• When exiting/entering doorways/baby gate, put Guinness in a sit/stay or down/stay and let Basil go first. Then come back and release Guinness and let him out.
  
• Work with the boys separately until they are both good at the command.
  

Working on "Down". Ideally, we want to be able to get the boys to go "down" at a distance. If they are a few feet from us and for whatever reason we need them to get "down" quickly, we can ask them of that from a distance. That will be our goal. For now, we just need to teach them "down" reliably.

Say "down", hesitate 2 seconds and without using any words, hand gesture down to the floor. As soon as his chest/belly touches the floor, say "yes" (with enthusiasm) and treat right away. It's best to get them from a stand to down instead of sit to down. Also, get them off the food lure.

Next time: Our friend Domino is coming and Renee is going to see why Guinness is guarding mom against other dogs. It's probably because our mom is so cool!