Burke and I (not Jake, yet!) went to a session with a professional trainer yesterday. She was really good, although very pushy about neutering him. She thinks it will really chill him out and that the testosterone will get in the way of getting far with training. I haven't neutered because of the negative effects on growth and health of doing it too early, plus I'm just a very "alterna" type person and you know, I research everything that's "conventional wisdom." It's a tough call because there are definite, published studies correlating even late neutering with health risks, plus there is a part of me that feels I am taking away some of his inherent dog-ness by doing it. And yet, calmer, less reactive, and more affectionate and keyed into what we want him to do, would not be a bad thing. But I question whether this will be the effect.
Anyway. Otherwise, the training session went really well. I learned that I am combining verbal command and hand signal too close together in time, so he is cueing off my body language/hand signal and not really learning the command word by itself. A timing issue. Great to have it demonstrated in person; I just can't imagine learning as much as I did yesterday from any book or DVD. She was impressed at the range of commands he knows, although she wants to start "over" from sit and down because of his lack of knowing them consistently in different settings. That's fine; I agree, and he learned them immediately there so I know he "knows" more than she thinks, but it will be good to go back to basics, fine-tune, and proof everything in multiple settings. Because of our very rural environment, I am sure I have not done enough of that.
I also got a sheet outlining "controlling resources" type things to do - something I had done when he was going through his major adolescent phase a few months ago, but have slacked off on doing for the past few months. Things like putting food down only twice a day so he cares more about it (and possibly hand feeding him meals for a while, making him work for his kibble - this morning he could care less, so maybe once he's figured out the new routine and is more eager for food); a "learn to earn" program (make him sit, lay down, etc, for treats, affection, and so on - we do this for treats but not for affection as much, I am guilty of petting him when he comes over and nudges me); walking into him when he crowds/jumps up; handling him daily. Pretty much everything except for the feeding and the "work for affection" bit we already do, but I think changing up the feeding regimen will go a long way toward reestablishing that we control all that is good in his life, and also make him a bit more food-motivated.
Jake's life is going well. We have an IEP meeting next week, but I can't even think about that until I'm done with an article that's due asap. Luckily it isn't until Thursday so I will have some time next week, plus there aren't any major changes I'm pushing for right now. He is fighting a cold and with it come a few more meltdowns. I'm so glad Katie played soccer, but equally glad it's over so that we have a bit of a break from constantly being in the car to pick her up. Jake is happy about that too. Yesterday we had to pick her up for a contact lens fitting (she is over the moon about them!) and he was not too pleased to have to get into the car immediately after getting off the school bus. I can't blame him; plus it was warm and sunny out and he wanted to be picking plants.
For years I have been prompting him to say "good morning" to the bus driver. He has never said it without me prompting. This morning, we walked onto the bus, I said, "Good morning!" brightly, and he looked her in the eye and said, "Good morning." Wow. Her jaw dropped and we smiled at each other.
He has been playing new games on his iPod Touch rather than just stimming on videos, but with that has come a new behavior: he throws it to the ground at some point. Frustration? I don't know. The iPod "goes in time out" when that happens, and we talked about "no throwing iPod, it will break," but this doesn't really make me feel good about Santa bringing an iPad. Is he ready? I think so. Yesterday he was playing the Virtuoso piano app on it and he was also doing what I thought was this little Twinkle Twinkle Little Star app, but I can't find an app that does what he was doing, so I am wondering if he was playing it on the Virtuoso piano app! I thought I peeked over his shoulder and saw something other than that app - it was a very delicate situation; he does not like to be spied on or watched. I have a feeling there is a musical genius bottled up in there (if he takes after his mother, anyway! LOL - I studied classical piano starting at four years old, until I was twenty - yes, I am a freak).
That's all for now. This mama has to get to makin' some bread (ie, money!).
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