What does Seven think of walking in the rain?

Seven thinks it's not much of a problem! We've had many foster dogs who are convinced the rain will melt them. In fact D'light also believes this! I wouldn't say Seven loves the rain but, he loves getting outside so he deals with it. This is a good thing as Seven is a terrier who needs daily physical exercise.  

No problem with going to the bathroom in the rain!

And we're off! The rain doesn't get in the way of our training. There's no magic wand around training - it's practice, practice and more practice.  What is it that we are doing?  Every time Seven looks at me (even a glance in my direction) I reinforce that behavior with food.  

Adorable!!

And Seven sees a dog...

I'm fine with him watching the dog as long as he isn't freaking out with over the top whining or pulling to get to the dog. Watching the dog is a high reinforcer for Seven.

And as soon as he looks at me we move (we are actually moving towards the dog - it's across the street). The moving towards is also reinforcing for Seven. Then I get a lot of him looking at me. If I hadn't been video taping I would have given him a piece of food every time he looked at me.  I waited until we turned the corner and were away from the dog before giving him the food. When Seven and I first started this work he was too amped up to ever take food and he sure wasn't going to be looking at me. 

Seven is making wonderful progress when he sees other dogs while we are walking!

And down the street guess what we see...

A dog and family across the street!  And here we go... fantastic and you can see what is more reinforcing for Seven. This time it was the food and that's exactly what I want.  I'm still fine with him watching the dog and the family even with the tiny bit of whining.  Remember to reinforce the behavior you want and that's exactly what I'm doing in this video. 

Yippie Seven, you are doing great!

Time to motor home! It's raining hard and you can see the drops on Seven's coat.

Action shots and he does a lot of looking at me while we are heading home! Seven is a very, very smart little terrier and a lot of fun to train with.

And the funny boy knows our house and there's no slowing down until the end of our walk. I love that every time we arrive at the front door, Seven immediately sits down and waits to have his harness taken off.

Once we are back in the house it's time to run around and have fun! Silly, silly Seven