We did some training with his new bed after our first time outside. When I was trying to get him to stay, he didn’t want to. I tried being out of sight for one minute at first, but he popped off before I came back.

Then I went out of sight for 40 seconds, and while he stayed on the bed, he was standing when I came back. He seemed much happier to be on the bed yesterday. Although he had great fun when we did some “go to crate” then “go to place” training.

This morning I tried to get Chester to stay on his new bed for about 15 minutes after our walk, when he’s usually quite tired & ready to settle down; he really didn’t want to — he kept popping off. I had put the new bed over his old bed, thinking that would make him not fixate on his old bed. But he kept trying to get at the old bed.

Oddly enough, when I unhooked his leash, he made no attempt to get at his old bed at first — he laid there for about 5 minutes before he got off the new bed.

He also didn’t want to go into the bathroom at first.

I was bit tired today — maybe from the sun when I went swimming — so we didn’t do quite so much training. We did a bit more with down-stays on the bed in both the living room and the bathroom again in the late afternoon. He’s happy enough to get on the bed in either location, but still just pops up every time I leave, except for the shortest amounts of time (20 seconds or so).

I gave him a rawhide on the bed again this evening, and he was content to chew on it for an hour. But when I went out of the room to do just a couple of things — maybe for a minute — I came back to Chester standing beside the bed, despite telling him to stay before I left.

Tomorrow I need to go shopping. I’m not really expecting much, if any, difference. Right now, I’ll be happy if he walks into the bathroom without me having to go and get his leash.

In the past I would carry him in when he balked, but it makes so much more sense to use the leash — so that in the end, it’s his choice, and the more he chooses to cooperate with me, the more he ought to relax about it. Or so the theory goes. Funnyhow it takes someone else to point out what’s right before your face sometimes.

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