Facebook page.This past Sunday was the best. I got through to a trainer to enroll us in an NW1 class! She had worried with DS, GADsden, Mals before, and recommended I muzzle her due to her only 75% reliability with nipping and general reactivity. I remember her old owner telling me she had done a little muzzle conditioning with her, but not very much. It's been about a year anyway.
So, we ran out to Petsmart, hung around training for a while. She did awesome. Her nerves were way cooler than normal. She actually let people walk past her without trying to investigate or eat them. We did focus drills and typical OB. There was a big shepherd mix that she wanted to lunge for. I turned her away, got her distracted and over the course of a few minutes I got her to about ten feet from the other dog without En losing her shit. If anyone's ever seen Borat; "GREAT SUCCESS"!!!
We get home and start some practice with the muzzle. It's WAY TOO EASY. After checking it out, within just a few minutes she was plowing her snout into it from a few steps away. A few more minutes and she was driving through the muzzle taking a few steps to get to the food in my retreating hand! I clicked the buckle on it a few times. She tried to paw it off when I leaned back from her. We tried again and I have her a HV treat as soon as the buckle clicked. She was solid for a few seconds, so we called it a night.
Now, here's the best part. The whole time were working on muzzle conditioning, my 5yr old son is incessantly telling horrible knock-knock jokes. 5 yr old's knock knock jokes. For example: knock- knock, who's there, FART AAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!!! and then he runs away. He was distracting. I was getting pissed. So was En. There were a few times in a row where I was late with a reward because my focus was split with the boy. En grumbled her frustration. I egged her on to a full bark. In just a few minutes, during muzzle conditioning, OB, I successfully got her to give a really good bark each and every time I or my son said the words "knock-knock".
