good dog, sit

Well, the instructor was impressed with Riley at his first obedience training session today! He was such a good boy, a perfect model of the "sit" command. That is the one command that Kyra has been successful at teaching him over the past few months. The instructor had the group work on "sit" for a long time and then "watch me", which he wasn't so good at. There were lots of distractions. The session lasted about an hour and a half and she gave us "clickers" and a few pages on what to work on at home. She told the group that the key to success is practicing every day and being consistent. After the class, she told me that Riley truly is a smart dog and she's pretty confident that his bad behaviors are out of boredom. Many golden retrievers are trained as service dogs. She said he needs a job, such as pulling laundry out of the dryer (no thanks) or taking items to the trash can, or bringing items to me to keep him mentally stimulated. That sounded great to me, but I'm guessing it will take months of training to get to that point. Oh well, at least we've started. She also suggested a different type of collar, Canny collar, which is the best she's seen for preventing dogs from pulling while on the leash. She told me the website address so I looked it up when I got home. The videos looked compelling so I ordered two since Tasha still pulls while on the leash as well. Maybe we'll go for a walk tonight to get out any excess energy so he won't wake me up several times during the night like he has been lately...

I jogged 2.17 miles on the treadmill this morning. I did 2 miles on Friday as well. Because of my left knee challenge I thought I would start out with low mileage and build up gradually. My knee didn't hurt at all on Friday when I ran. It hurt a little this morning as I neared 2 miles so I kept with my plan of going only slightly beyond 2 miles.

I've lost 3 pounds (in 9 days) on my new eating plan. I really like the program! I feel so much better with a more even energy level throughout the day. I like not feeling over-stuffed and not having sugar highs followed by crashes. And surprisingly, I haven't missed the sweets like I thought I would. I did break down and had a few chocolate malt balls on Friday, but I only had a few instead of an entire bag full.