It seems we found a treat with very high value: cheddar cheese. Greg tried it with Chopper last night and said he really liked it. Got Chopper to come to him from another room. I witnessed it this morning outside. We're trying to encourage Chopper to approach us, so we've been clicking and treating that behavior. Well, outside amongst all the smells and sounds Chopper came over to me excitedly, got his click and cheese, then ran to the other side of the yard and back for another. Until I'd run out of cheese. At one point he even got on his hind legs and put his two front paws on my chest with excitement! And then got freaked out, which is good, we actually don't want to encourage that behavior. The point is, we have figured out a "high value" treat, which means we have a greater chance of motivating him to repeat a marked behavior.
We took Chopper to the vet yesterday. I was worried about the car ride, and taking him to a strange place, but he did great! He stayed in the back of our SUV looking out the windows, no jumping around. At the vet's he had some fear going through the front door but was fine once he was in there. In fact, he seemed to relax a bit. Here he is in the waiting room:
I think maybe the vet's office reminded him of being at the shelter--his last "home." He also found a female dalmation he luuuuuuuuved. He kept trying to go to her, and when he did his little tail would actually wag. It's the first time we'd seen that. He did get a little over excited though, and peed on the bench Greg was sitting on. Twice. Oy. I felt so bad, never had a dog pee in a vet's office before. They seemed used to it though. Our vet looked Chopper over, and he was pretty good. She said he was very healthy, yay for a healthy dog!
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