Millie Articles
February 21, 2025
This time I scattered numerous articles around the room before leading her in. I got some nice response, and I think I was probably too strict in waiting for a down right in front of the article instead of simple near or next to it.
Tomorrow I'm going to move the exercise to a new. much larger room, where I can walk her around better. We're also going back out into the field for a stair-step exercise. I'm putting out a few articles on that track, but am not expecting miracles. I think it will take a while to move from the specific, controlled exercise into something more general. Still, it will be fun to see.
PLEASE DO NOT PUT MULTIPLE ARTICLES ON YOUR STAIRSTEP. JUST A START AND END PLEASE. and for the love of all that is holy, please don’t nag her about either one. You’ve allowed her to ignore them for over a year, let’s not poison them now. We have a plan. Let’s stick to it.
ReplyDeleteI love this session. Not only is she getting better, so are you! SO, sure, bigger room tomorrow. And then, Sunday, take it outside. Go back to day one—take a chair, sit down do exactly what you did on day one, only outside. I know you’re doing this at an ungodly AM hour, so feel free to give her half her breakfast, and take this outside once it’s light out and you’ve had some coffee, and let her work for the second half. So tomorrow, bigger room, Sunday, outside. I’m pretty excited about this. And, she’s offering a down. Let’s pick relatively warm dry days for her outside work—if the weather sucks, do one of these indoors. If we establish a habit of downing we will get something resembling a down when it’s gross out (Samson gives me a bow). BUT, we only give her that grace when it’s seriously gross out. A little dew or frost don’t count. Standing water, snow—sure. But for now we are going to simply avoid those.
It will take awhile to go from this to something more general….and we are going to take tiny steps all the way. Heather has given us yet another tiny step, and we are going to use it with Millie. In due time.
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