Hi Kellie,

Happy New Year.

Chanel and I spent 3 full days working with Andrea & EB after the new year.  Those 2 ladies are amazing.  They had different dogs coming to the training every few hours.  Zipping all over the area to pick one up and drop one off :-) It was a great experience working with them. The first day was the hard one for Chanel.  She was exhausted that evening.  On the second day you could see her letting go, calming down quicker and looking more interested in the other dogs. We did some parallel walking and spent time letting her sniff around the other dog.  The 3rd day we worked under cover from the rain and she started showing more signs of the switch, but the close up face to face/eye contact part was a stumbling block for her.  That seems to be a big issue for her.  So we spent more time walking, following, sniffing and petting each others dog.  You could see her wanting more and her tail going higher.  We talked about her face to face reactions and decided she could only handle a few seconds and then walk away leaving her with a positive experience.  That afternoon we escaped the rain for shelter in a local pet store and worked in their training room. Spent a little CAT time with a few familiar dogs and then let them off leash in the room.  Not sure I was ready for that! Being a Silken and the others Cockers they do not have the same play styles, but Chanel did give it a Silken try.  The Cockers mostly ignored her, but they all ran around the room together and checked things out.  That was so amazing. I was so proud of her.

Even though Chanel was exhausted each night, probably physically and mentally, I believe she needed the day after day process. She still needs more positive CAT experiences in different places with different dogs, but I believe we made a big, possibly huge step.  Daphne and I are planning some dates now to continue with this. I know the whole process still will take time. Questions-  What have you seen after the main switch period?  Do they retain everything in between trainings or take a few steps backward? 

I watched the training DVD before I worked with Andrea.  It really helped me understand the process better, especially seeing some of the dog in the switch period and how they tend to be confused during this time.  I don't think

Chanel's switch over was the same as most of the dogs in the DVD, due to her eye contact/face to face issues, but we worked around that.

I asked Andrea to send you her report, if you have any thoughts after reading that please let all of us know.  This is a great team to work with(Daphne, Andrea & EB) and I thank you and Jesus for your hard work and dedication to the CAT procedure.  I am experiencing it first hand. 

Thanks for everything,

Cindy Wolpin