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We have been practicing… I’m still struggling with the L6– get out cue (just having trouble visualizing where this would be on a course). But, I think she is understanding the Holiday Bonus: Threadle foundation. I”m wondering if I need to add a barrel or wing to have her wrap that.
Hope you have a great New Years!
Last Homework video for 2024. We decompress with walks in the woods, zoomies in the yard, lick mats, wobbles and sticks to chew up
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We combined some of the elements this morning. Startline stay, parallel running, tunnel, and run past the treat & train distraction. I decided to put some of our dance steps together for her finale this morning. I think she is going to like this game.
I’m going to suggest the MYOB seminar to my student. I taught an impulse control seminar last month. It was a two part series. She came to part one and didn’t come to part 2 because she said she didn’t work any of the homework. So, if the homework isn’t done, the dog won’t learn.
My crew would personally like to thank you for giving the ShPile for homework. https://youtu.be/HnbqSNgmoSY?si=FOW4Gu0SG0yrZBhr
yes, she definitely doesn’t like any of the others getting a talking to. She also doesn’t like it when Abbie and Link bolt out the dog door to bark (neither do I 🙂 ). I think we keep the “I’m tired of so many dogs in the house” voice to a minimum. At least I hope we do. But, its going to happen with four very different 4-legged personalities and three humans living together.
I did see a positive change in her last night during the class I teach. She waits in her kennel during my class. Usually she is sound asleep. She is my best demo dog and appears completely settled in the wire cage on the side lines. I have been mindful to make sure she isn’t getting frustrated or aggravated. I have one over the top male BC in class. He can’t seem to stay with his mom for more than 30 seconds. His default seems to be running away to go visit the other dogs waiting. We have gone to having all other dogs in crates when he is out working. He isn’t dangerous, just annoying. Last night he was extra special with his annoying behavior of running off the floor to crates. All other students in the class no his drill, including me and we try and help. He ran to 10s cage and I stepped in front of him. 10 was laying in her kennel, picked up her head and went to high ears. For the first time she didn’t roll over. The dog didn’t make contact at all with the kennel. What I saw was my dog knowing I had her back. She wasn’t afraid, nor was she upset. It is chaotic when Furry does this. The owner is upset, couple of students are upset and I’m frustrated with the waste of time. So, the energy in the room isn’t great. But, isn’t that life sometimes? All I can do is stay supportive for my dogs and teach them to trust me in all situations.
Who knows why she shut down when we were playing with the tricks. Everyone was out. My Toller is pushy, so she had to go into the pen. She doesn’t like to wait her turn. LOL…. A UDX on her way to OTCH and she is the most disobedient with her wait on her bed trick. I asked 10 to sit and she said no and went to my husbands legs and laid down. I was just us sitting on the floor goofing off. So, I didn’t push it. My littles always want to work for a treat. If I would have gotten a toy out, I’m sure she would have re-engaged, but I was winding down and so were the dogs.
I did laugh when she kept coming over to get into my lap and in the way of the other two. I just pushed her away and told her nope, you didn’t want to play with me. Nothing formal, just emptying the rest of the chicken from the bowl.
My two littles have lots of tricks and are the first in line to show off.
It’s probably not the best thing to do, but it’s just our family dynamic at night. They either want to engage or not. Abbie, my Toller, gets to catch treats I toss to her in the pen. Freedoms claim to fame is a long crawl across the floor, Links is some fancy spins. Ten didn’t want the food. She was just done for the day.
This makes perfect sense and I’m not sure why I thought this would be hard. I work in rescue from time to time, rehabilitating fear aggression. I do something very similar with those dogs.
Now I’m thinking about what would be happy to her and not frustrating that she can’t have it (ie toys on the ground). I’ll start with the balance equipment I think. She likes the goat work, but I think if I did a pattern game with it around she wouldn’t be frustrated by being asked to ignore it and happily choose the cookie toss rather than the balance disc. I can easily do two toys and we do that anyway, but I’m not thinking about something else in the environment she needs to notice but ignore.
I did try and teach a trick to her last night and she completely shut down. So, I worked Freedom and my other dog Link. Boy did she get jealous when I pushed her away when she was trying to get into the action with Freedom and Link. It was funny, but I didn’t ask her to play again. Then when I was finished and the treats were all gone, she came up to me and tried what I had asked for. She is just too smart.
I think I’ll try harder to notice if she is investigating anything on our trail walk today.
I’m so thankful for this class and the access to my answers.
I’m hyper sensitive to the development of her personality. I want to raise a bomb proof girl. A dog that has the tools she needs to recover and adapt.
Thanks
Working with Resilience on the Road: I’m not sure if I need to worry more about how spooked she gets with things that might be in a room. Example: the vacuum cleaner. If its in a room (not running), she won’t go in. In fact, if she sees it she tries to run outside to hide. I tried setting it out in our training building and she didn’t care at all. Took it out to our garage and I was able to get her, reluctantly, to chase her cookie. There have been other things she has spooked about and proceeded with caution. But the vacuum sitting in a room is definitely a monster in her eyes. https://youtu.be/0Vr5IT4Oovc
Yes, getting her to release the toy in arousal is becoming an issue. She definitely would rather work for the toy, but will chase the cookie fine. I do have a hard time getting her excited about chasing a cookie. I’ll go back to trading the toy for a tasty treat. I need to upload the “take it on the road” sessions. Having some concerns with some environmental stuff.
She has the chase down, been slowing it down to get her thinking about the direction of the turn. She is quick to just offer what ever and have begun to tell her “that’s not it”
We have been working on increasing balance on the goat work. https://youtu.be/O76F6N1Xf8o?si=tFZqq3vjn8lbJBKb
Wrap Shaping.
I’ve used this game for quite a few things. Started the day I brought her home. Never have I swung a toy, so that was interesting.
1. Added a cone. All I have in the garage is a full wing. I also add a pad for her to hit with feet
2. Toy confused her at first. We have worked a lot on permission to “get it”. So, I didn’t expect her to try and take it from me. But, it did confuse her
3. Added second cone and toy on the ground next to bowl. At this point in the game I should have quit about a minute earlier. She was bored and getting distracted by sounds outside. But, very happy to see her working through it.
4. I’ll set a timer next time. I don’t usually work her for this long. I think it was 4 minutes total.
We worked on a couple of the assignments tonight. I leave tomorrow for the US Open, so I won’t be able to get to all of them.
This is Drive to Handler.
Question:
1. In baby mode, should I ask for her to be closer. Coming to heel and side “close” has been an ongoing struggle with us.
2. I left a couple of the cheats in the video. She followed along for over 95% of the time. She was definitely more motivated with the toy. When I get back I’ll take her to our training building where she can really get moving.
