Vacation is over - back to real life!

Here are some last photos from our vacation - Bob and Egypt did great through the entire vacation, Bob kept his long lead on the whole time but we rarely touched it. It was a just an in-case kind of thing. He behaved very well up in Colorado, his manners were a bit off but towards the end of the week he got a bit better. I'm thinking it was a situational thing you know. He did pretty good on his walks - we just worked out along the streets and stuff, we focused mainly on his pulling. He did really well, he would pull for the first few minutes and then after being corrected and using the 'turn-around-and-go-the-opposite-way-when-he-pulls-technique' he would settle down and start walking nicely.

Darrell trying to make Bob go busy - I walked out and distracted him. 

Playing in the front yard

Here are a few random pictures that I took up there - gives you a good feel of the atmosphere of that part of Colorado.

       

                        

Coming closer to our last few days there the local deer started warming up to us more, the last two days they came into the yard to get some yummies from us. Bob seemed very interested in them. Not interested to the point where he wanted to run and chase after them, but would just sit there and watch them intently.

So serious!

We fed them cheerios and oranges

Cute baby!

We moved Bob inside when the deer came into the yard, we didn't want him to get too excited and startle them. He would stand and watch right inside the door. He never tried to get outside when they were there, he just wanted to see. Every time he would shift however the deer would tense up with fright so we moved Bob over to the window where he could see out. This was better because they couldn't see or hear him anymore and they were much more relaxed. Bob enjoyed his window time.

He was so interested in them - his ears would twitch every few seconds.

Anyway, we're back now and Bob seems to be not behaving as well as he usually does... almost like a regression kind of thing. So, the plan is extra obedience bouts throughout the day and while we work. He's not doing too bad on his working exactly, mainly just his manners and he's started picking up random objects off the ground. Like small pieces of trash and leaves and such. So, today we had a little food avoidance session, we just used his kibble as the temptation - something easy. Later on we'll start using harder things. Basically I just tossed some around him, told him to leave it and reward him when he left it. I did the same thing a long time ago with him and he did just as well as he did today. I also left the room for a while (got that idea courtesy of Lisa!) and he did really well with that too - I'll start upping the amount of time he is left alone - today the most I did was 20 seconds.

My reward was much better than his stinky old kibble!

Bob had a walk this past Thursday. I think we had intended to walk some streets and sidewalks but a cold front had blown through just that morning and the wind was insane! So, we decided to hit up a mall that is fairly close to GDTX. He did really well, needed the first few minutes to calm down and stop pulling, found the things he was asked to find and that was about it. Its funny how routine these things feel now when way back when it was like a big crazy day if he had his little 30 minute walk with a staff member... Well thats about it for now. Just busy busy busy with my last semester of school being started!

P.S. did I tell mention we attempted to make an igloo? We worked until about 11:00 PM the first day and got too cold to continue. We had plans of finishing the next day but it never happened.... if anyone is driving over by South Fork Colorado anytime soon, let me know if its still there or has been melted away!

My brother ran into the corner on the last day - thats why it looks like its going to fall over. 

Can you guess what we used to make our bricks?