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Yeah he lets me know when he’s bored with something lol. I just have to listen! I will wait him out in the future. I did a little waiting today. It is a really hard environment for young dog brain.
Today I tried to use the toys with the cone but nope, he wasn’t into playing. He played last weekend at agility but the energy is different here. So I didn’t try very long. And when he rolled on his back just played with his tummy lol.
Then I did the bowl to Bowl again and kept it short. I did try a little toy play again. But again nope. 😀 I also put the cone on top of the cooler I brought with snacks. The good thing is he didn’t try to get my tomato sandwiches out of the cooler so yay! Lol
Then I did the foot target again and sent him with my arm and foot. And I just had him come back to me like you said. We do show tomorrow too so I’ll see how much dog I have left. I might have a little time tomorrow morning to do something at home where he’s less distracted.
That makes sense he wants to shred the fur toys rather than tug them. I was hoping he would want to tug. He does seem to get bored with things when I do them too often. I can just use the squeaker toy when we do that game in the future. And I also thought, after I posted, that he didn’t like it wasn’t sure about the push back. Maybe I need to work up to that. I can try an air cookie once. That may piss him off lol. And he definitely loves climbing the mini dog walk! I also have my teeter outside. It’s propped up on both ends so it doesn’t move and he likes climbing on that too.
We are showing this weekend and there isn’t any grass area to train on unfortunately. And he did get pretty tired yesterday. We didn’t train yesterday we just walked and showed. Today I brought some stuff and we trained a little in the morning. I thought I’d keep it really simple and use food to keep his attention. Lots of dogs around and I don’t trust him not to run off and visit. He thinks everyone is his friend. I wish I thought everyone was my friend! Hahha.
So I did the bowl to bowl with the cone and I sat on a chair. I can’t kneel on this awful dirt anyway. But I did move the cone out a little too far.
Then I just did the little send to the foot target. I don’t think I did a great job with this one lol. But I think he did pretty well.
It actually was one toy that was long and falling apart so I cut it in half. So not sure why he liked the right side better!
Today I started with the same game in the same rooms with the same toys. I think I probably went too long because he was leaving me at the end. One of his playology squeaky toys was right outside the gate behind the camera. He absolutely loves those toys … As you’ll see in the next video lol. But I do want him to enjoy the longer toys too because they are so versatile. We also use the playology to jump in the pool in the backyard so they are very high value.
Then we went outside and I tried the race to toy game where I push him back and try to beat him. I think if I use a treat to throw back, he would ignore the toy and just search for the treat. I was using a real fur toy here which he likes, but he saw the playology toy in the grass and decided he wanted that. So I tried to put it away on my mini dog walk… Well he thought he would just get that one instead. Hahahah he makes me laugh. Bad trainer!!
So I put the fur toy on the deck where he couldn’t see it and could get to it and we did it again with the playology toy. He’s not really beating me to the toy, so I tried to stay engaged and dance around with the toy. But the third time I gave him more opportunity to win because I didn’t want him to get demotivated. Losing all the time sucks! Maybe he just doesn’t understand the game yet?
Oh, and I always debate about using a toy I want to use vs using the toy the dog likes best. What should I do about that?
Last we went onto the deck and used the mushroom again for the bowl to bowl. He did great! He didn’t cheat even once and I moved the mushroom out quite a bit. And this one I kept super short.
That’s interesting about the service dogs being more reactive when tired. I can sure relate. I know I have less patience and don’t learn as well when I’m tired!
Life got away from me today so I wasn’t able to do much. And… Tired this evening so I just took Fix into the spare bedroom and we did the toy play back and forth. He thought it was great! I did smack him on the rear when he wasn’t paying attention to the live toy lol. This is the first time we’ve done this.
Yes Marie is my helper she’s wonderful!
Sounds good about using a longer toy and positioning it better. I’ve gotten used to Dreamer who loves toys no matter what. So I’m still learning how to toy play with Fix. I don’t want to lose his toy play like I have with other dogs in the past. And I do have a flirt pole I can bring. He loves that thing.
The decel game is fun and he definitely likes the treats! He loves those St Rocco’s!
We didn’t show over those four days. It was Agility only. So Fix just got to come and socialize and sniff and pee and train a little and be cute and silly. I can definitely see less impulse control when he’s tired. I don’t know if that’s harder for terriers since he’s my first, but I also think he’s just a dog and still learns the same way as any other dog, I just need to make sure I adjust to what he needs.
Showing is definitely still tiring for him. We have a really busy next couple of weeks so we’ll see how he does. After this coming weekend I’m going to Colorado for the following weekend for showing so we are gonna be busy. But I’ll bring his training stuff and try to keep up!
We are all having a nice quiet day today!
Thank you! I am so thrilled with this puppy! He really did so well in a difficult environment and he did get so tired today. I kept it short and fun like you said, but today on the blinds exercise he did actually run off to the person walking by lol. So we stopped.
He was a little better for the collection exercise but I had treats so he stayed with me. I still think he ran pretty fast! And I think I remembered to decel! Hahha
I think we are going to take Tuesday off training completely and just have a rest day. We have 3 down days this week, then I’m showing him in breed for four days next weekend so we’ll see how that goes too!
Thank you! Yeah my helper did great not letting him go until he was looking at me. And I’m so happy he’s keeping his engagement with me and not running off to visit! He loves other people and dogs so I’m glad he’s choosing me. I’ll work on the blind cross exercise a bit more without a dog first so I can get my mechanics down better.
To keep things interesting for him today I went back to the bowl bowl with the cone and the driving to the toy when I chase him. I even brought my chair so I could pick up the bowls and the cone and put them away, and still have everything we did be in the view of the video camera. I was really happy with how he was able to switch. I split the session into two videos but it was really the same session.
And I’m playing with him a lot between toy throws because you said he didn’t like it when I took it away so soon.
So the first bit. There was something icky in that new bag of treats so I was slow getting them out, it was a new bag, so I fast forwarded that bit lol
And then the second part. Definitely helped to put the bowls and cone and everything away so he would play again. And this is a little squeaky purple octopus 🐙 that he loves.
Thanks! Today I had a helper and she held onto Fix while I ran. I think he was pretty speedy! My helper told me I did the blind cross exercise wrong tho oops. I thought I would submit it anyway. And Fix was ok with the toy, but the grass was waaay interesting and so I kept this short.
I also did the drive to handler with a helper and I think he did really good. I sometimes forgot to decel lol. But I think he had fun and did well and he stayed with me for the treats. I didn’t do the bowl and cone today but I will do that again tomorrow.
Well I failed at keeping the prop closer hahha. He was doing so well I moved it too far away! Next time I’ll just keep it close the whole time. And I kept this session short because we are at an outdoor trial this weekend for four days. So I’m also having him on his harness and dragging the line because I don’t trust him to not run off and try to say hi to everyone. But I do think he’s getting the idea!
And I don’t usually keep a collar on him because he shows and I don’t want a collar line. But I can put one with his training gear and use it for training to hold him back. I’m really glad he doesn’t mind being held and touched and picked up.
I didn’t have him stay today so he did kinda take some time to search for his throw back treat. But he stayed with me, even though I was fairly far from activity. So I think he did a good job!
Thanks! I don’t think he’s really super fast lol but then I’m used to Dreamer hahha. I think he did well too. So I used a deck mushroom as a prop and he did try to cheat a couple times! So I made it easier and put it close to my knees. I also tried a little play away from the bowls in between but he kept going back to the bowls. He really loves this toy but I could get out the flirt pole and see if he’ll play with that instead.
The next thing we did this morning was driving to handler. I have been working through your Want To Stay Ready to Go program with him too so I tried that a little, but then gave up and threw the cookie back. He’s doing ok with the stays but I don’t want to confuse him either. I think he did pretty good with the driving to me.
Okay I did both games again this afternoon and outside in the grass where I had more room. I did the chase to you game first. The prior videos did show the whole sessions. They were short. These videos also show the whole sessions. I only did the toy chase four times and threw it pretty far. He still does the silly puppy pounce that makes me laugh. And it got me sweaty all that running. I can’t run very fast myself! I played with him a lot between throws which he does really like.
He is a little hungry for dinner for this game so I think he stayed engaged better. Though here he didn’t really want to switch to the toy. He really wanted the treats.
Balance is needed by us! 😀 For these videos I asked him to work too long, which I usually don’t do. Ooops! And I usually do the bowl to bowl game with all my puppies but I have totally forgotten with him so this was his first time. And he got bored pretty quickly lol. I won’t do it so long next time.
I also did a little of the drive to toy game. This is his favorite toy and he went from the food in the bowls to the toy pretty easily. Though again I worked too long and he left me. So we just ended.
I see we can do the pregames and submit video so here we go!
I have done some foot target with Fix already but mostly with food. I wanted to see how he would do out of the gate with his favorite toy. He did okay … Hahha not great. I cut out all the tugging we did between targeting.
The second set I put him on the deck so he could easily find the treats and he did much better.
Okay great, I can get some weights and attach them to the teeter, or even maybe some tunnel bags. I didn’t really notice that it was bouncing a lot. It’s a Mark’s teeter, I think a good one, but my lawn is kinda lumpy too so it’s not a solid flat surface.
I’m glad I made a good call just doing the two reps. :). I’ll try in another day or two again, see what he thinks. 🙂
Today when I left Dreamer at the vet I was close to the agility barn again so took Kaz over. I was hoping to bring both dogs, but just took Kaz. He definitely can’t work for a full hour! But we had some fun. I did set up the straight lines exercise which was a lot of fun. He only did it this once, though. I tried again later the other direction and nope, he was done, so I didn’t push it. I think he’s gonna be a speedy little guy!
I also took him outside because there was stuff set up, and for him outside is a whole new environment. It was cooler outside too. But he still can’t play with toys there. Thanks for telling me to keep at it with the toys, and they will come back. I think I gave up on toys with Jet and Connor early because they were the same way. Play at home but not in different locations. And I so do love using toys! So this is just a little clip of having him run through a straight tunnel outside. I threw the toy, but he didn’t play. And he really needed outside sniffing time so most of the time I just let him sniff and walked around with him. Which was good anyway because we had too much time to work. :). I don’t know if this video is useful at all, lol, but thought I would include it. I didn’t do any teeter work, or much else. 🙂
Hehe yeah I don’t give them butter very often for fear of it being too fatty, but they sure love it! And it’s the only thing my Kromi Maze will take a pill inside. :). Gotta be sneaky with him! I’m not sure if the fat content is higher than cream cheese or not, I need to look! Pouring some melted butter on some other kind of treat is also a great idea, even kibble might work! And yeah everyone loves butter! 😀
So I’m feeling a little better but didn’t have much time today, so just tried the mountain climber again with just a little bit of movement to the teeter. It did worry him a little! I hope I didn’t do too much. And since he was worried, I only did two reps. Should I go back to a non-moving teeter, or should I do this again in a couple of days?
