Training Day 27

So today when I got to my Trainer's house Bailey was inside of his crate  and was so excited to see me. When my aide let him out she had forgotten to shut the gate to the den and he he began joyously bounding through the living room in a wiggly, hopping, happy dance. Since he had so much energy I decided we should play hide and seek first thing today. Instead of calmly walking next to me on the way to the tennis courts he  raced ahead of me, running over the pool cover,  and flew towards the entrance to the courts. Once he got to the entrance and realized that I wasn't quite as fast he was he trotted back to my side and walked with me the rest of the way. Hide and seek was great, I love watching him enthusiastically run towards me when he's told "go find Eva". He got tired pretty quickly because it was so hot out today, so our game was a little shorter than usual. We went back inside and Bailey crashed out within seconds.
After a little rest I did an auto-sit session on leash today and he did really well. Then we switched his leash and it was time for him to "get busy". He peed quickly. We then tried something new. Some trainers use a technique called "do it" to teach new tasks. The idea is you get your dog to copy what you are doing when you give the command "do it". So I had my aide sit and then tell Bailey "do it" and when he sat he was rewarded. She also did this with the down command (laying down on the ground command). We only did this for a short while but he seemed to understand what was being asked of him. I'm hoping this "copy me" method will help him to learn to use the light switch.
After lunch I employed Bailey's brother Liam to show Bailey it's okay to put his paws on my wheel chair and give me kisses.  Liam got the idea behind the saying "give kisses" immediately and once Bailey saw his brother doing it he wanted to do it too. He was at first a little hesitant still to put his weight on me but once my aide put his front feet on my chair he visibly relaxed and began licking my face for a long time. I'm confident that now he knows it's okay, that he will do it without hesitation next time. I know for sure that he understands the command because whenever my aide says "give kisses" even if he doesn't get on my chair he puts his head in my lap and starts licking my arm happily. Today I leave you with another cute video of Bailey playing and galloping around the side yard with his brother Liam.