Water boy

Well, it's just after 10pm and Harley is in the kennel in the dining room sleeping. I've stayed out here until he fell asleep. I think he'll do okay as long as he sleeps. He may whine if he wakes up and discovers that he's alone. I think he's almost outgrown the other kennel anyway (as you can see in the picture above). It will probably last another month and that's about it. I think he's enjoying sleeping in the big kennel because he has more room. I'll be selling the other kennel on craigslist before I know it.

We did mat work tonight. I tossed the mat away from me onto the floor and motioned for him to lay down from a distance. He went to the mat right away each time and followed my signal to lay down. I am very proud of him. He did bite me tonight by accident when we were playing. It isn't too bad. It looks more like a scratch. He's also been doing well with retrieve. We throw his duck down the hall or out into the kitchen and he runs to get it and brings it back. He's still not dropping it but he's almost there. It's fun playing with him.

Tonight I started using little pieces of hot dogs to get him to come in from outside. So far, so good. He comes running to come in now that he thinks he's getting a piece of hot dog. That may be our high value treat. We'll have to see. I'm only going to use the hot dogs to get him in the house if he's digging or dawdling at the fence.

We have to start our day with a walk tomorrow morning. It was rainy tonight so we didn't get out for our second walk. I'm going to take him for a walk before he eats, make him work for his food. I should put a little sign on him that says "Will work for food!". lol

He's laying on his back in his kennel. He seems like he's fine in there. I don't really want him to be so far away from me at night but there's nothing I can do until that tray gets here. I don't want him to tear up the rug any more than he already has. I'm afraid he'll eat something he shouldn't. Today it looked like he just tore it up. I'll have to watch when he does his business to make sure everything is okay. I know - TMI! lol



I'm going to have to sneak out of here in a few minutes and see if he'll sleep okay in the dining room. He's just the best. I really enjoy having Harley. Training him is fun. The only thing I need to work on is getting more walks in. Oh, and the impulse control stuff. An example of impulse control is when I'm putting his bowl down that he continues to sit and doesn't move until I tell him to move. We're just at the beginning of working on that. Besides the carpet incident today, he's been awesome. I wasn't mad at him at all for tearing up the carpet. I wish he hadn't but if I had done my job as his caretaker it probably wouldn't have happened.

He seems to be sound asleep now so I should probably go to bed. I'll miss having him in the bedroom with me. Almost forgot - he's able to jump up on the couch now. He looks so cute when he gets up there and lays down. I have to run to get a treat to get him off as quick as I can but he gets pretty comfy right away. I don't let him know I think it's cute though because I don't want him up on the furniture. All I have to do is just walk toward the treat container and he jumps off. I try to say 'off' so he'll associate getting off with that word. He did look cute though curled up on the couch (my bad).

Here's a picture of him carrying his water bowl. Hopefully the new set up will deter him from continuing to do that. Again, cute but not a wanted behavior. It's a ceramic bowl so I'm kind of surprised that he picks it up. I tried using the real big ceramic bowl but he can move that one too. We may have to anchor something down so he can't pick up the water bowl. What a little cutie.