Dylan at 8 Months

Dylan reached 8 months old on February 11. Her weight is now 50.1 pounds. According to our GDA guide book Dylan should be able to accomplish the following:

Dylan at 8 Months

Sit when asked 100% of the time with distractions present. Well, this does happen but there are times that I have to coax her with a gentle tug on her training collar.
Down when asked 100% of the time with minimal distractions present. Dylan's downs are almost too easy. She gets lazy sitting and goes into a down. Then she likes to roll over and have her tummy rubbed. (this is not in the manual) and a big no-no! I need to stop being her accomplice.
Demonstrate a good foundation to the "formal recall or come" 50% of the time. The "formal come" is when the dogs comes towards you when called and then goes to your left side, does a u-turn and sits at your left side. She does this most of the time on leash. Off leash, she wanders a bit and then forgets I called her.
Come to her name off leash 100% of the time with medium distractions. This is not an issue in the house. Outside is a completely different story and is troubling when she is playing outside and when called, ignores you completely. Argh!
Demonstrate a good foundation of loose-leash walking. Walks rather well on a loose leash, but likes to race ahead. When she does this, we do a quick about turn. But it still has not sunk in yet. We'll keep working on this one.
Responds to obedience commands when given by someone other than the primary raiser. This is another opportunity for us to get better. I have been doing most of the obedience training, but Chris tells me that when she works with her, she does well.

Dylan also spent three days at the Sylmar kennel over Super Bowl weekend. Kennel stays are most important for these dogs so they get used to going there, staying there and not become stressed when they are dropped off by the raisers.

We are also in the fifth week of obedience training with Long Beach Recreation Dept. When I get frustrated working with her, I'm brought back to reality when I see how the other dogs in this class behave. She has two more weeks of this training before she graduates and is doing rather well.

So that's the latest update. Not perfect, but not totally ugly either. She still likes to steal Chris' bras, slippers and tea towels off the stove. She also likes to chew on toilet paper rolls, so we have to keep the bathroom doors closed. And, we have lost two pairs of reading glasses. Well, not really lost because we found them. They were just chewed beyond recognition.