Surviving the Blue Angels - Part 2

So what did we do during the 1.5 hour Blue Angels show (there were 5 of them over the course of 4 days).

I made it fun for Catty and D'light and Brett took care of King.  D'light doesn't get all that worked up by the jets. But, he gets really worked up if Catty is stressed out from the jets.  So might as well work his brain too.

D'light watching out the window as I ready the high value food rewards and turn on all the sound machines.

We did a lot of different "training" which Catty loves.  The goal being that we do fun stuff with high value rewards while the environmental distraction is occurring. 

I can't say this would have worked even a year ago.  But, we've done a lot of training prep work. And Catty loves training so much that it's more important to her than barking, biting/redirecting or chasing the noise of the planes.

I make sure to use very easy training items - the ones that she enjoys and that she's good at. I mixed up what we did over the course of the four days.

We did "Go to mat"

Asked for a sit

Practiced her favorite sit pretty

Played "find it" - which both Catty and D'light love and I did that by throwing a handful of treats in different directions and telling them to find it when the planes were really close.  Luckily I can hear and feel the planes coming.

Here we are practicing mat work with the jets coming. The sound machine is on (again Catty is very comfortable with the noise the sound machine makes).  As the noise gets louder it's all about rapid reinforcement and it works!  No taking off to chase the noise!

 We also used lots of our fitness equipment.

The donut is a favorite

Crazy that she can sit pretty on the donut.  The older lady still has moves!

D'Light wants to show off his skills

To fast for the camera!

Next it was paw touches

Catty says "Good job D'light!"

Catty says  "This is awesome!"

You can see Catty's intensity when she's training - this is really useful!

Onto the fit bone for some core work

 Time to bring out the peanut & Catty waiting her turn.

All paws on the peanut!

"Time for just me!"

I think Catty's favorite piece of equipment is the peanut and it wears her out!

More go to mat

"Mom, I think they are all done!"

So what was King doing all the shows?

Hanging out on the deck with foster dad!  The noise didn't bother King a bit.

"Oh hi foster dad - how's this for my Blue Angels weekend picture!"

Here's some clips of the Blue Angels show

Fat Albert (the transport plane for the Blue Angels)

We all survived the heat and Seafair! This was a very successful weekend for Catty and I'm very, very pleased with what we were able to accomplish while having lots of fun.