Day 8: Scared of grates in the sidewalk...but he is in love with his bed!

This morning we learned how to nudge things closed (such as doors, the fridge, washing machine, etc.). This is very hard for the dogs because typically items that they would nudge, have a tie attached for the opposite skill - tugs. When you tell them to nudge they sometimes think that you want them to pull it open since the immediately see the tie and want to pull on it. Despite this, I think that Troy did a great job at nudging things closed! Since he's naturally a gentle boy, I don't really have to worry about him slamming the fridge or a door closed. He does it slowly. The only flaw with this is that sometimes it doesn't close all the way which could be troublesome if it's the fridge or freezer. We will continue to work on this though!

After we practiced "nudge", we did some calling for help. Last time, Troy only did one or two strong barks and the rest were more like moaning or whining. Today he did so much better! We even tried it in our room. The trainer would knock on my door and then I would whisper, "troy, help". He barked really loudly 5 times in a row which is excellent (for right now... eventually this will hopefully last even longer). Once he barked 5 times the trainer would come in and say "hey, is everything okay in here". This makes it more realistic for Troy rather than all the dogs barking in a room together.

We also practiced a lot of down stays today. We also did this in a variety of environments. Troy is a superstar with his down stays. Here's a picture of a stack of treats directly in front of him and he didn't move at all! We also had a ton of treats on the floor at one point and the trainers would bounce tennis balls back at forth in front of all the dogs. None of them got up which is incredible and we were all so proud of them.

He didn't give in to the temptation of treats, tennis balls, toys, or other dogs. Such a good boy!

In the afternoon we took a quick walk down Kerr St. to Lakeshore and then back up Wilson St. All of the dogs had a much better time outside today than the did on our last walk. Troy pulled a little bit but I didn't run him over at all! He is getting much better with his "right". The only issue we had was that he is afraid of sidewalk grates! I didn't realize until after we had gone over one and he jumped to the side really quickly. We will definitely have to work on this as I like to take walks downtown Toronto and there are a ton of subway grates there. When the sidewalks are busy, he can't avoid all of them!

After our walk we learned how to push the little tiny red door buttons. Until today the dogs had only practiced with us on the bigger door buttons but today we tried out the red ones. The trainers were shocked that all of the dogs kept persisting until they hit it. She said that usually some of the dogs get frustrated because it is so hard for them. Troy was able to hit it on his second try. I can imagine how hard those buttons must be for a dog since they cannot see the colour red, and they are so tiny compared to the size of their paws!

Last but not least, we had some play time after dinner. He seems to be enjoying this a little bit more and we are going to do our best to play at least once a day. He brought a tennis ball back to me a few times so I would throw it for him. After about 5-10 minutes he got kind of tired/bored so we went back to the room and filled up his Kong with peanut butter. He really enjoyed this so I think I'm going to experiment with different "Kong recipes" when we get home! It's a great way to keep him entertained for a few minutes after a tiring day of work.

Brushing his teeth is still a battle but he's getting slightly better at this as well. He actually seems to enjoy having his fur brushed which is great news! Now if only he would let me brush his teeth without licking off all of the toothpaste first...

Tomorrow we are going on our first outing with harnesses...Yay! We are going to try going to Tim Horton's with all of the dogs. Let's just hope it doesn't snow! Check back tomorrow to see how our first outing goes :)

Troy absolutely loves his bed. Tonight he gets to sleep on it, instead of in the crate and I'm sure we won't have any problems. I have to actually wake him up to take him out for a pee once he's fallen asleep on it!