working on bindi's tricks for the workshop this weekend. Cody doing well with "pack it up".
Took it easy today and walked bindi. It is 7:35 off to give bindi a bath. She has been digging all week. Terra found a bunny and chased it down and unfortunately killed it. Bindi wanted it but obeyed the "leave it" cue when she went to sniff it before we put it in the trash.thats it for me today. Enjoyed the videos. sharon and her pups bindi, cody and terra.

Remembered to wear the treat bag to the vet's office this morning!! Worked on some ob in a different venue and different distractions. Lured her onto the scale with a HV reward and a "hup" command, which was the first time she's ever willingly got on the scale by herself. She even obeyed the "stand" command when the scale started to rise. This is ahuge accomplishment for her, as she's always been skittish with the scale until now.

On a side note, she was three pounds lighter than last year and identical in weight to when I got her two years ago. The vet commented on her waistline and no signs of extra weight anywhere. Overall, he felt she was in excellent shape, well-muscled, fit, and had good range-of-motion.

Once we got to the waiting room to wait for her fecal analysis results, there were other dogs there, and we had a little trouble with reactivity. I distracted her with treats and focus commands, and put her in a down, and eventually she settled, but every now and then she still wanted to give a certain BC (who was posturing the entire time) the stink eye. It was a good exercise, but obviously there is still work to do. I can appreciate why TD doesn't allow posturing at the club, and several times I almost asked the BC's people to down their dog, but I used it as a teaching opportunity instead.

ETA: Sharon, I take it you guys don't eat wild game? I wish I had a dog that would fetch wabbits!

Well I found something that I really need to work on.
Both dogs will ignore or recall on rabbits, dogs being walk, and other normal stuff you can expect to see on the road or yard.

Well apparently wild turkey can send both my dogs off the walls and for a long time. Leave it or go to bed did work but the dogs were still wired. Even deers don't have that much effect on them!

Were they new to them?

Well, I have a big important test tomorrow, so I figured today was a great day to funnel my procrastination into something useful! I went to home depot after class and bought a bunch of PVC and made an adjustable jump. The top rung is resting on an adjustable brace so that it will fall off it touched by his feet (to prevent injuries and to make it easier for him to recognize if his feet touch).

Then, we started the jump training, and Carlin did really well for his first session! It helps that he is already really good with touch pads.

Picture: https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/299213_10100998740438006_1694810557_n.jpg

Great! What fun a jump! I am waiting for my husband to build our jump.
Today we worked on:
Bindi- rally o training. This week we are going to work on our fronts, perfecting them. Trainer said she is doing well enough to start some advanced signs. Shaped a new behavior today, that she would tip a plastic container on her side. Over the last month while sick I have shaped her to:
Look right, lick (yum), ring the bell, push an object (cone) with her nose, hmmm I can't remember the others. Anyway. she is such a great dog. Took her to a workshop for dog trainers and she was so good, even though she had to spend lots of time in her crate. Plan on doing a lot of matches this summer with her in rally, to get her ready for competing.
Cody- practiced, "pack it up" behavior, he loves it! He loves anything with motion! Am going to start working with him more and get him out more.
Terra- Worked shaping her to tip a container over with her paw, heel, wait.
For Terra and bindi I will add the cue= tip for the tipping over the container behavior. My dog trainer class is hard work...but lot's of fun. Love sharon and her pups bindi cody terra

Harley agility is looking good. He can work at longer distance. We can also pull the weaves from all sort of weird angles.
I have to work more on the report to hand a faster pace, that is not so good especially when close to other obstacles.

Ob work is going well, I am polishing the come position.

Dexter is stuck in the 2x2 not getting it, but I keep on chiping at it. His ob is all good but the recall off wild beast needed a reminder. Spring time does that.

Also this week the boys had their annual vet check up and Dexter had a heart murmur. Mild and can only be hear on one side. As long as he as no other sysmptomes we will just monitor it.

The wild turkeys have come back in the yard, yet we have seen then countless time in the fields and woods but out our back door it is not the same.

I only have 2 more agility class and I will take the summer off as the horse show will be starting soon and following 3 circuits takes a lot of time. But I will go and practice on my own.

Oops, self-deleted hijack.

Edited by Connie Sutherland (04/19/2013 12:27 PM)
Edit reason: edited

This morning was the first time we've had a chance to track in a few weeks. The ground was wet, and Sadie sometimes struggles on that type of surface, but I wanted to take advantage of a rare day off.
The last few times we'd tracked, Sadie wasn't focused enough. To avoid that I changed our pre-tracking routine a little. Instead of letting her sniff around off-leash while she emptied, I gave her a very brief on-leash walk, allowed her to empty, then crated her while I laid the track.
She was very excited to track, as she has been missing out. She was focused and committed, and handled the challenging surface very well, if not a little fast at times. She was a little hesitant on the articles, so I helped her with the first three, but she was solid on the end article.

After tracking, I let her run a bit with a couple of long-distance recalls. We then did some practice with the dumbbell, which was also long overdue. We ended with four short send-aways, with emphasis on motivation and speed.

 Quote: Duane Hull

This morning was the first time we've had a chance to track in a few weeks. The ground was wet, and Sadie sometimes struggles on that type of surface, but I wanted to take advantage of a rare day off.
The last few times we'd tracked, Sadie wasn't focused enough. To avoid that I changed our pre-tracking routine a little. Instead of letting her sniff around off-leash while she emptied, I gave her a very brief on-leash walk, allowed her to empty, then crated her while I laid the track.
She was very excited to track, as she has been missing out. She was focused and committed, and handled the challenging surface very well, if not a little fast at times. She was a little hesitant on the articles, so I helped her with the first three, but she was solid on the end article.

After tracking, I let her run a bit with a couple of long-distance recalls. We then did some practice with the dumbbell, which was also long overdue. We ended with four short send-aways, with emphasis on motivation and speed.

IMHO, you are steeping in the right direction here. I never allow my detection dogs to just sniff around at their leisure, or "critter." I teach a BREAK command, through markers, which means "go pee right now." I also use LEAVE IT to stop the crittering behavior. I work on these behaviors regularly in areas known to have distracting odors.

Another thing I feel is very important is the starting ritual before a search. I continuously go through the same motions with the dog before a search so it understands 100% that it is about to work, especially during the initial training period. This helps to build drive and focus during training.

When you combine all three things, it makes for a quick switch into work mode... dog gets out of kennel, immediately takes a BREAK, and is ready to go right to work. This is advantageous in military detection, as the dog needs to be working from the time it leaves the truck, but I can see it being good practice for the sport field as well.

For Fama and I, it is:

* Put on harness
* Take a break
* Unique 2 note whistle
* Come to heel
* Raise hand for search signal
* Search