Karyn, congrats on Thane turning 1.... I am glad you have not had any other barking problems. sounds like you are farther ahead then I on training. I am working on turns and forward and back with my wheelchair now. even though he knows them when I am standing it is a whole new concept in my chair. we are working very slowly on retrieve. we are having a hard time shaping it because I don't know when he is actually looking at the object. right now I am using cardboard tp tubes. they are different them his toys and I always can get more hahahahaha. they don't hurt his mouth. any tips on this?? again congrats on everything, Ridge and Clyde SDiT ----- Original Message ----- From: Karyn and Thane<mailto:bcpaws4me@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: Vi-clicker<mailto:vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 6:49 PM Subject: (VICT) Thane Turns 1! My baby boy is growing up very fast! Since Thane has been in my life, I have watched this slender rambunctuous puppy develop into a beautiful dog. He no longer looks or feels like a puppy- he is filling out and learning how to take on the world. I am mindful today of the fact that Thane never would have been possible if it were not for that final act Met gave to me, showing me it was time to go. When it happened and even still in moments- I was devastated. My ears, eyes, hands and feet died when he did but today as I finished up my first attempt at a harness for Thane, I was truly mindful of the wonderful gift I was given through Thane. It snowed last night so we were pretty much stuck indoors today- but with new toys Thane did fine. It is so fun to play with him but I gotta say that sometimes I just get beyond pooped. He plays ball as if he is the goalie protecting the net. It's rather funny. I got him a wonderful tug at Sitstay.com with the hopes it would help us work on tugging that could later be transferred to skills such as closing the door, opening the fridge, helping me undress but Thane has no idea how to tug! Oh fun! Another Met I see. Met had a friend's service dog to show him how that was done. We won't have that this time around so I am going to have to learn how to teach him to tug... Smile He is really ball obsessed so I was thinking of trying to find something with a ball on the end that hopefully does not include rubber also since I can not handle that. Thane's LLW leaves much to be desired but I keep reminding myself *baby steps* He does so well with finding normal curb cuts (not driveways yet) Sometimes we have to use driveways to get up and down off of sidewalks. One thing I like about Thane is he does not try and walk me down the middle of the road. He is at about a 90% success rate on finding curbs though. The only misses are under distractions. For a dog who has only been training for 2 1/2 months I feel really confident about him. I have not had any other bark situations occur or any signs of unease by him so I am just not gonna worry about that incident unless it begins happening again. If anything Thane loves people to a fault. It will be a lot of work to keep him from becoming distracted by people but I am up for the job- or at least I think I am. He is alerting me to the door now when he hears the vibrator. I set the d-b pager on a surface that it makes a noise for him and he responds to it everytime. We had a wonderful day today playing with Wiggly Giggly though- everydog should have a Wiggly Giggly! Unlike Met, Thane is not amused by snow! LOL Karyn and Thane