April 23 ...it's been a while

So yes, life got really hectic last week with prep for convocation and then Jedi was gone to Sacramento the last 3 days. That meant we spent time handling the chicks and letting them spend some time outside. They're funny. Grass totally freaked them out at first but they've adjusted now.

Today I got Jedi back. I put the chicks outside and after they'd had 30 min to settle in I put Jedi on a leash and started on training. At first he was pretty focused because he only heard them, hadn't seen them yet. We got within 5 feet of the pen and then he suddenly noticed them and was very interested. Not focused on me but was sitting and watching. I let him do that until he tried to lunge at them. Then we backed up a few feet and as long as he was calm and sitting or laying I let him watch them. The instant he tried to ounce we backed up again. When we reached the patio...he finally stopped sitting to pay attention to me again rather than lungs. We did tricks in fast succession: sit, down, stand, touch, shake, and spin. Easy on leash tricks.

Then I was able to keep his attention and slowly move back towards the chicks. At 5 feet away he did another lunge and I jumped in front of him and said NO! And went right back to tricks as if nothing had happened. But we didn't try to move closer than 5 feet that's obviously the closest he can handle right now. When I got low on cheese we went back to the door and did a sit/stay and sit and were done.

He was still pretty excited. Scratched at the door to go back out, when called off that, went to the garage door and sniffed and jumped up at it...then came and sat with me on the couch but still very excited.

Calmed down when Caleb started cooking and went to see if he could get scraps. I got 3 mosquito bites for my trouble! We'll do another short session at 6 then call it good for today.

6pm
Very fast and short session. Kept up the very fast commands. When we first went out the door he wanted to run to the chicks, I stood in front of him and got his attention. Then just did fast tricks and worked up to 10 feet when he started to glance towards the chicks. Did tricks there and then backed up to the door again and went inside. No lunging and except for the quick glances towards the chicks I kept his attention. I'll try to do that daily as long as I get home early enough to give the chicks some outside time.