Molly and I have been working on watch whenever she wants to play with toys. I've got her past a 30 sec test, but I'm going to work more to improve her response to the command and to solidify it even more. Passing watch is very significant progress for L3 training, because we need it to train two o fthe other behaviors (finish and heel).
Beyond watch, we haven't been training so much. But Molly always is busy being my SD. In a typical week, she has to empty the washing machine once or twice, pick up an uncountable number of dropped objects, fetch my blanket from another piece of furniture at least once a day, and usually also help me strip the bed. Her help is really making it a lot more possible for me to be productive in a day. She generally also gets a few roudy play sessions outside with her human daddy and lots of good inside play with both of us. Additionally, she spends a lot of time keeping me company and helping to keep me warm.
Today we tested mat while I was working in the kitchen. She held a mat command on a kitchen rug, not her usual mat, for 2 minutes. This was wihle I was making some dough and had my back to her a lot of the time. So I am really proud of her for holding it so well while I was ignoring her.
Now we get to the treats stuff. I wanted to give Molly a good reward for her mat and keep her busy for a little while so I could finish what I needed to do and my DH could finish what he was working on without her bringing us toys and putting them down near us. So I took a little bit of peanut butter and smeared it into her kong. That worked really well.
Like her daddy, Molly LOVES peanut butter. She is lucky to get to share some of it with him. They both hope that Molly's American grandmother will send them more soon! We can't get peanut butter very easily here and what we can get is nowhere near as good as the American peanut butter.
Another love she shares with her human daddy is marshmallows. Molly will do, quite literally, anything to earn a bit of marshmallow. My DH has had her heeling for marshmallows for months. Unfortunately he hasn't figured out how to transfer it to a normal nehavior, but at least she gets the idea when marshmallows are involved. But we're out of those again, so Molly will have to wait until DH finds more in a Danish shop (it happens occasionally) or her Grandmom and Granddad take pity on her poor marshmallowless state (and DH's) and send a fresh supply.
We give Molly garlic pills to help cut down the risk of fleas and ticks. These are another thing that Molly considers a treat. She is the same with her fish oil pills. She isn't so keen on vitamin E but she will take them. Fortunately, her willingness to take pills extends to dewormers, antibiotics, and anything else she might need on occasion. No need for tricks or force with this girl!
