Training Day 34

When I got there today Bailey was loose in the den. As with every Tuesday, he was extra excited to see me today. He even jumped up on my lap and gave me some big wet kisses right after I got there. Awesome! We did the light switch first thing and something very cool happened today. As you may remember, in the den is a big wooden board with three working light switches that we originally used for training. But a couple weeks ago we began using a small hand held light switch board that rekindled Bailey's interest in this task. Today during the light switch session my aide at one point said "get the light" and instead of touching the light switch she had in her hand, he walked over to the big light switch board and touched his nose  up to one of the switches there. I was amazed. This shows that he understands that when someone says "get the light" that it means any/every light switch and not just the one that I was holding in front of his face. I read about how dogs can generalize but I hadn't ever seen it for myself.  So that was really cool!
After that I did an auto-sit session. Bailey did well. I always walk him over to the chain link fence where he can see his friends. I always have him sit next to me while a bunch of dogs are wiggling and trying to get his attention, as a good distraction test. He did great! After auto-sit it was lunch time. Bailey just slept (with his two chew bones).
After lunch we did one more light switch session and Bailey did the same thing as earlier, touching his nose to different switches when asked to "get the light". Then we went straight into play time and soon left after that. Over the weekend Bailey was entered into a costume contest dressed as a vampire and won "Most Handsome" in the contest. Here is a picture of Bailey along side some of the other contestants. Sooooooo Cute!