Spooks

I have noticed that Riva has a spook period going on. Before he has been so confident and friendly in all situations but now he is spooked by certain things. Definately nothing serious and I think it will pass without any special attention. The first thing I noticed was that he barked in the parked car at some people walking towards the car. Then we saw the same elf puppet that he had seen outside the crafts shop a couple of weeks earlier and this time he wooffed at it a couple of times before going to check it out and being convinced its harmless. His reactions are still quite mild, a few woofs and a short hesitation before going to examine the target and then he relaxes. But to prevent them from escalating I did a few things. First of all, the crate he rides in the car is now covered so he can't see out. The second thing is a bit of extra effort in taking him to new and different places to desensitize him and if there is something that seems really hard for him, I will use the bar open/bar closed method to get him over it.

We met with Salme again last Wednesday. Things are progressing well with Riva but I have been a bit lazy about training. I must shape up and keep training regularly. The main homework we got from Salme is building time on stays, both sitting and down. Riva is old enough to be able to concentrate on doing things for a bit longer times.