I'm really proud of myself for picking up on this attention situation with Kody. By rewarding him for paying attention to me, we now have darn near perfect walks. It's really amazing, but also a little scary how frighteningly difficult it was to get here (and we still have more to do!) When I first started this blog, I took the approach of sharing what I learned. I still kind of do that, but I realize that a simple blog can't really explain things, and dogs are much too individual. So now, I just report our progress and hope that anyone who's interested will see that if you keep putting the work in with positive training techniques, you will learn over time and get great results.
Yesterday, though, we went to go for a walk and as soon as I opened the door Kody let out the loudest most intense bark I can imagine. It wasn't a quick bark, it was the howl/scream bark, sort of like "Arrrroooooooo-woof-woof!", but really loud. When you're not prepared for this bark it shakes your soul and affects you for at least an hour afterward. Imagine if you were right next to a cute happy baby and then without warning this baby let out the most horrible scream it could and started crying violently. Or like those internet video clips that scare you by being quiet and then having some horrible ghoul scream all of a sudden. It's very difficult to describe in words, but maybe some of you know what I'm talking about.
I don't consider this "bad behavior" necessarily, but it's an unfortunate side effect of Kody. If he gets spooked in just the right way, he'll do this. It's usually some way that I could never ever predict. I think it was a strong scent he smelled because there was nothing to see and after that he was intensely smelling everything he could outside. I image some wild animal must have passed by or something.
Also, the Canine Genius is really working out. Kody eats his whole dinner from it now and has a great time. He's really learning how to get the food out. I still sit with him just in case things get a little slow for him. It's also just plain fun to watch. Then when he's done I wash it and put it away for the next day. I've also noted that the size of the food is a big variable with this toy. If you can't get the food in by just dropping it into the top, it's not going to come out either. Our food seems to be the perfect size, but if you get one, just be aware of that. I also put in a little bit of Natural Balance Roll-a-Round I've broken up into small bits to make sure it stays interesting.