I'd like to start by saying I'm REALLY proud of my dog for putting up with me while I made him endure the person we met during training today...I am aware that this was NOT the proper reaction to this situation but I'd do it again in a heartbeat....
Ryuk and I went downtown today for soe OB practice around people and cars and such. There's a nice little courtyard by a parking lot that's great to train in, there's benches to leave your stuff on and plenty of distraction that you can see coming a mile away and can prepare for.
We were working on "off leash" (traffic leash on collar) long downs and position changes from a distance among distraction. For the long downs I was setting him at a down in the middle of the courtyard. Most people walking from point A to B don't want directly through the middle of the courtyard but they do walk all around the edges making all sorts of noises, wearing all sorts of things, so it makes training under distraction fun. This is not the first time we've trained in this area (and now it CERTAINLY won't be the last lol)
I put Ryuk in his downstay and walked to the edge of the courtyard. I should note I had Ryuk's little "Please ask before petting, I'm training!" sign across his harness just in case. Which seems to be a magnet for people to call out to him or throw food (which he is trained not to take, he's never really ate much food off the ground, so I just used that encouraged him NOT to pick-up food thrown at him ever, even when he missed a treat during training he will look to me for a replacement and let me pick up the one that ended up on the floor.)
I see a guy look around and walk out to my dog in the middle of the courtyard. First he just makes clucking noises and walks around him, then he claps his hands a bit and jumps around. Then he pets him. I decide to stay quiet, see how Ryuk handles it....Then he takes out a piece of a sandwich and drops it by my dog's front paws, when Ryuk doesn't take it he picks it up and shoves in in his face. Ryuk is still staring INTENTLY at me in the corner and doesn't even notice the piece of bread this guy is trying to shove up his nose. At this point I'm torn between going over to the tell the man off and joy that my dog is performing 100X better than I ever expected. The man gives up on the food and picks up the traffic leash handle and pulls a little, my dog doesn't move except to brace himself a bit to stay down. The man nudges him with his foot then his hand, Ryuk doesn't move. He tries clapping in his face, Ryuk doesn't move. At this point a woman who had been watching us train earlier is excited begging me to do the "sign language stuff" (hand signals) from earlier for the position changes. The guy meanwhile has started stomping around my dog trying to get him to move. So I tell Ryuk to sit. The guy stops stomping, I tell Ryuk to down, he starts stomping again, back up to sit. He claps his hands, I tell Ryuk to sit pretty....Apparently thinking he has discovered the secret language of this strange robot dog the guy stomps and claps...I tell Ryuk to down again. Finally the guy looks around shrugs at the small group of people who have stopped to watch this guy, then walks away.
ULTIMATE distraction training XD This is an area I hope to train in a lot, I'm bringing my camera next time just in case this guy shows up again.....I really REALLY hope he does....Ryuk and I have been working on a hand signal for spin (clockwise) and twirl (counterclockwise) from a distance, we're not quite up to the distance I'd need to mess with this guy yet, but in another few weeks we will be!!!
We met the strangest (and funniest) person today
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Re: We met the strangest (and funniest) person today
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