Jackal's June Trick & Life Update

I haven't really been posting much about my personal life because I got treated like crap by a fellow blogger, but I did want to give a brief update on the injured husband/job loss scenario. He got accepted for unemployment which I knew he would since they didn't have a legit reason for firing him since he was willing and able to go back to work. His back is doing much better. He's off all of his medication (including the one that messed up his short term memory so bad thank goodness). He absolutely loves his new horse and is really getting good at clicker training. You can read about his progress with Faran on the horse blog (since it can't really be called Chrome's blog anymore - http://rdxhorses.blogspot.com/).

Also I got a promotion at work to assistant manager. I was really uncertain about taking the position because I'm not sure how well I'll do with an "in charge" position, but everyone assured me I would be fine. Besides there's a probation period so I can change my mind no harm done. However with the promotion comes a raise and that along with the unemployment is enough that we should be okay and get to stay here (we were considering moving because of limited job opportunities) at least for the moment. My husband is looking into going back to finish his Bachelor's Degree since he only likes about eighteen months on it. :)

The roof of our house, the horse barn, the chicken coop and the tack/feed shed are still not repaired. :( The insurance company gave the money to our bank since the house isn't paid off and our bank is absolutely refusing to cooperate with the roofing company . . . it's been around two or three months now! This is ridiculous! I'm getting very frustrated with them. I had to get rid of most of my chickens because I didn't have a place to keep them and they were getting killed by predators and traffic (at least a bunch of them now live with neighbors so I can still see them and know they are doing okay). :( And I miss my barn! We will figure it out though.

And last but definitely not least I've decided to teach Jackal a "place" cue (e.g go to your bed/mat/place) because it's really easy and we only have four days left in June. The Freestyle contest kept us distracted and then everything was changing at work so I sort of ran out of time. I'll let you guys vote on next month's trick though.

Anyway we had our first session tonight and Jackal did great! I knew it wouldn't be hard to teach. I put down a large, white bath towel and he immediately went to it. I clicked him for standing on it, tossing the treats away to reset him. After a few repetitions of that I delayed the click and he bowed and did shy while bowing!!! How cute is that?! We might have to work on making that into a separate trick because it's adorable. :) I went ahead and clicked that. The next time he bowed, did shy and then laid down. I want him laying on it so I gave him a jackpot for that. :)

The next time he started trying to interact with a nearby chair and the horse headstall hanging from it. I couldn't help laughing at his initiative, but I didn't click since that wasn't what we were working on. So I took him back to the towel and he seems to think laying down is too easy and that I must be expecting something else from him because he started pawing at the towel. I finally had to stand on the edge of the towel so he would stop pawing at it. I probably should have used the dog bed for this, but it's in the wash right now lol. I waited him out and he laid back down so I gave him a jackpot and ended the session. :D Smart Jackal.