Crate Training Update and Some New Toys

It's been about a week and a half since I started working with Katie on crate (re)training and look--whose a happy dog inside her crate?!


I say retraining because Kate was initially crate trained as a puppy. But then once she was reliable in the house on her own, we took the crate down. A decision that one of us (me) regrets, because now she doesn't like to be confined to a crate. But, anyway, we made progress this week: Now, as soon as I open the crate door, Kate trots happily inside and waits for her treat. She will also go inside from a distance if I ask her to. So now we're starting to work on staying for longer intervals. I've been taking the crate to Rally and agility practices during the week and working with her there. I also took it to an agility demo last weekend just to see how she'd do. At first she was too excited to care about going in, so I didn't force her. But at one point, I caught her laying down inside it--for just a moment. She popped out once she noticed me looking at her though, the stinker. Once she'd done a few runs and was more tired, I tried her inside. I'd turned my back for just a second when I heard yelling and my dog's name and "Hey, catch her!" I'd failed to completely zip the thing shut (OOPS!), and--smart girl that she is--she took note and nosed her way out. :)

We had a fun day, though. Kate did a nice job on the course, which (conveniently) was a version of one we'd practiced in class that week. She did get mildly distracted by some duck poop which was unfortunately deposited right before the entrance to the weave poles (!), but she recovered and finished the course.

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I started a few new knitting projects this week (socks) and made progress on some WIP (mostly socks), and I'll post pics of those later. In the meantime, I treated myself to a yarn swift and ball winder. (About to be wound is Andes Yarn, purchased at Kraemer's, my LYS.)

And I think it's soooo cool that now I can do this: