Day 15

Ferguson continues to do well with our rehab alone training. He has been panting a lot less, and seems more compliant about the prospect of going into his kennel. He randomly gets tasty treats, and the length of time he spends in there varies drastically, so he never quite knows what to expect, but that it's really not that bad.

Something else I've recently learned about him is that he appears less stressed when left with his muzzle on, both in and out of his crate. I recorded him while I left the room (leaving him out and muzzled), and while he seemed to miss me, he didn't pant, and seemed more able to settle himself than before. Of course, he also decided that it would be okay to wait on our bed for me (in our house, no dogs on the furniture, ever), but he seemed compliant and gladly hopped down when asked like it was no big deal. To be truthful, if that's all it took to make him happy, then by all means (He still needs to get down when asked though). The only thing I don't like about it is that I can't then leave him with something tasty to distract him...though lately he still doesn't bother much with them anyway :/. Oh well. We'll figure it out.



Today, I was also productive in that I registered Ferguson in PG county so that I can apply to have us become members of that dog park down the road we always walk passed. We got the licence, and I've since applied, so we're waiting to hear back on whether or not the "board" has accepted our application. Having the park will be nice since no one is ever there when we've seen it (probably a deterrent to most people), because then Ferguson will have a large area in which he can run at higher speeds legitimately and regularly. There will definitely be videos of this to come, at least while the weather continues to be nice :).