[Melissa Bishop]

Ha! He sounds great!

Where do you all live? We’re in Fort Collins, CO. We moved here a year ago from the Washington DC area (Arlington, VA).

Melissa

[Melissa Bishop]

Hi, Julie,

I’m Melissa and I’m taking this class with my puppy Pirate. I’ve watched a few of your videos for the class and have enjoyed hearing the trumpet playing in the background. The soundtrack for my videos is often my husband Stan practicing trumpet. Who is your trumpet player?

~Melissa

[Melissa Bishop]

Hi there!

While I have not posted much video, we have been practicing lots of the games. I finally wrote a list out of ALL THE THINGS so I can keep track and try to touch on everything–not in every session, but throughout the week.

Here is a session on wing wrap turn and burn. The sound track, once again, is my husband Stan practicing trumpet for an upcoming pops concert. Right before this, he was playing Titanic, but it was while I was setting up and I didn’t get video. 😢

This was our first time using our new pop-up laundry basket. I can see that I am “helping” with my hand in the first few reps. I think this got better (I did it less) as we went on.

After a short break, we did this session of strike a pose for serps. This background music isn’t that exciting, but not long after this after I finished filming, he moved on to music from Hamilton. 😂 The orchestra is playing a pops concert outdoors at the drive-in movie theater later this month.

For this session, I went back to using the target in my hand, primarily because when I am using the toy, he comes at my target hand with an open mouth and lots of teeth. 👹 We are working on hand targeting with a closed mouth in separate training sessions, but now what I get is him smushing his nose up against my hand and his little front teeth biting my palm. So funny. He is able to do normal nose targeting when I am training with food. Little bugger.

Here’s another little issue we are facing: over the last two months or so, Pirate has developed an obsession for shadows–primarily butterfly shadows, but yesterday it happened when my son threw a toy really high and far, and Pirate tracked the shadow not the toy. Then he was only interested in finding the shadow not playing with the toy. This happens outside only, and mainly in our yard. Fortunately, he is not doing it with lights or reflections, and does not do any of this indoors. When it is sunny, he only gets outside time in the yard on leash to potty so he can’t rehearse the compulsive behavior. I have done a few very short training sessions in sunny conditions with varying degrees of success. In general, he will not work with me and can’t respond to well-known cues when he is fixated on the shadows. I am concerned enough that I have decided to call my vet. Honestly, I am torn about putting him on behavior meds. He isn’t an anxious dog (in fact, he’s a happy-go-luck little guy) and this isn’t really interfering with his quality of life. But it is interfering with my training goals, so I feel as if I’m being selfish. Have you ever dealt with this with any of your dogs?

My main reason for bringing it up is that I’d love to be in my yard for the Tuesday night class since we need a bit more space, but if it is sunny at 5:30pm MT, he might not work for me. So I’ll play it by ear. I could always move downstairs to my basement. Right now, the forecast is for partly cloudy skies.

I heard about the earthquake this morning. Did you feel it?

~Melissa

[Melissa Bishop]

Hi, Tracy,

Did the link for recording of the last Tuesday night class get posted? I might have missed it. Hope you have a great weekend!

~Melissa

[Melissa Bishop]

Finally getting some video uploaded! Yay! (We have done several sessions of driving ahead to the toy–fun!!–and driving to handler, but I wasn’t able to video.) This video is of wing wraps, both using food and starting to use toys. I think I’ll be able to get a bit more enthusiasm with toys, and I’ll try to get some video of another session or two, especially after I hear your comments. Bonus–you get to hear my husband practicing natural trumpet while I’m training. 🙂

I realized watching it again that I am being very boring in the food session, and more animated in the toy session. That may have something to do with his enthusiasm, too.

~Melissa

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