Zumi 7 months

Zumi turned 7 months old last week.  Almost the same size as Vito although she still seems a lot smaller.  28lbs and about 18.5in tall.

Continuing scent article training.  Cookies for me!  Zumi is doing fairly well with the training.  Since I was able to start applying only a smear of food on the correct article on the very first rep each session, I made the jump to no food on the article on Saturday night.  Zumi promptly grabbed the wrong one.  I chose to handle errors by grabbing the article, asking her to sit, and then calmly giving her a cookie for sitting.  My main goal was to interrupt the wrong behavior, get her to be calm before the next rep, and keep her in the game with a cookie but seen as very different than my parties for the correct article.  On day #1 of the new plan it worked as Zumi grabbed wrong twice, but then was able to think and scent out the correct article on all future reps.  On day #2 of the plan it did not go so well.  Zumi grabbed wrong x3 in a row, the same article each time, so I removed it from the pile (of 3 total).  With the 50/50 chance she still grabbed wrong on that 4th send so after getting a cookie for the sit I went back to food on the article.  One smear of food and she was correct on all future sends, no reapplying of food.  I really dislike scent article training, but the process is fascinating!

I think I did 2 or 3 more sessions of running dog walk training this last week as well.  Moved from a completely flat board to being raised about 6in or so.  Still rewarding absolutely everything right now.  Just getting Zumi comfortable with the setup and seeing if she will run the same style on the plank as she will on the ground.  I rested the board on a tipped over trashcan and it does wobble a little bit but I'm hoping it will be OK before I have to think about switching setups.

Some slightly older pics from the first week of May when Summer was actually here.  I am sure it will return.

Zumi's a good swimmer.  Thank God!  Now if only Vito could learn to paddle his back legs instead of looking like he's drowning.  Zumi managed to steal the toy from Vito every time.