Took advantage of the unseasonably balmy weather and bribed my brother into helping me set up searches for the dogs today.

Worked Kenzi first and she did okay. When in and alerted great, but wasn't searching as well as I would have liked.

Then worked Kipp. My brother hid 12 ft up in a tree for that one The wind was great and it was fun watching Kipp work the scent and figure out that it was coming from up in the tree!!

Then I took advantage of the fact that Kenzi was a bit pumped up because I worked Kipp and worked her on a second problem. This time she did great - stayed very focused, caught and worked the scent cone nicely and gave a great alert!

Since there's no snow, I put 14 weaned calves out in the field. The Pinker took them down the lane, about 100 yards.
He's pretty good help these days (if you have candy corn in your pocket.....!)

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

Since there's no snow, I put 14 weaned calves out in the field. The Pinker took them down the lane, about 100 yards.
He's pretty good help these days (if you have candy corn in your pocket.....!)

Hmmmm, Hobbes does tend to be much less reactive when I have gummy bears in my pocket. I wonder if there's a connection...

We were waiting at the ferry terminal and took the opportunity to practice BAT trials from a distance. It worked great! We had lots of room to maneuver and Jethro could see the dog far in the distance so we could start a good distance away.

Also, because it is mid-winter and the parking lot was almost empty, we took advantage of some of the apparatus in the children's playground area. Jethro jumped through the rope wall and up onto a landing. Then I was trying to get him to jump over a bounce toy, he kept running around, running around, and then, he jumped over it, but he was about 6" beside it instead of on top of it. I rewarded that effort and we headed back to the car. He slept like a log for the whole ferry ride and until we got home.

During the ferry ride I watched Really Reliable Recall with Leslie Nelson. I am so happy I did! I started practicing her method last night.

Today is Eden's turn as a house dog. I have 4 dogs at any time in the kennel but they are all rotated thru the house 2 days at time.

Gives me a chance on one and one with them,

I worked Eden on different scent boxes and she nailed them. Self correcting, deep nose. First time on scent boxes for her. I think tomorrow I may add a small track.

General ob. She was totally stubborn when we got to the front door and would not sit. Turned into a good lesson because I finally noticed that she was focusing on both on orbee and another ball that was on the other side of the storm door.

Lots of two ball with the chuck it. I love the chuck it, not only does it propel the ball further I have something handy to bonk her with....LOL Ob during the play, outs, sits, and platzs.

She is really a strange dog. Can't quite get a handle on her yet, it's going to be interesting to watch her mature.

Put Kipp on sheep today for the first time in 2 weeks. I love that dog!!

I left the muzzle off this time (the one he had been wearing to keep his teeth in check). His dive and bite Jaws behavior was almost non-existent. He covered the sheep well and gave them a nice amount of space. He was actively thinking and working, he stopped when asked and called off when asked. I was very happy with how he did!

We need a like button!

Way to go Kipp!

We did some heeling with distraction, that was another dog getting in her face, she dropped focus only a few times to snap at the dog "get away" but pretty good for that distraction.

Sits, downs, stands 180's, lefts, rights in motion.

Also worked on down with spin around during fantasy send away She nailed one today that was awesome so I didn't push for any more.
Did some hand signal sits, downs, stands at long distance.

We will be doing different time length sits, downs, under distractions of other dogs getting to chase her favorite item the orange rubber chuck it ball at 4:30

warm today 65*, more PVC brings. Then worked on ignoring distractions while on walk....very nice...did a recall under distraction of two teens trying to get our attention only 10ft away. He did great, only looked because I did. Too warm for much, made me tired.

We are back home in Vancouver, into our old neighbourhood. I don't know if any of you remember, but when we left, I had resorted to tethering Jethro to my body for our outside walks because I had a couple of bad leash jerks when he tried to at 1) a crow, and 2) another dog. I was using the prong collar, and whenever he got excited about something, I would get more excited, using pressure on the prong and voice commands to try to get Jethro to turn off his fixation and arousal. Did not work so great.

Last night we had an after dark walk, and Jethro's leash hung between us like a slack clothesline. We practiced the Name Game (from Really Reliable Recall) and the Reset Game (from BAT). I have learned to give him reinforcing rewards and make his treat delivery last as long as I can and it is making a difference. Jethro would hear his name and come bounding after me as I ran in the opposite direction (all on leash, of course). And also come running after me when he saw something of interest and choose to retreat with me rather than lunge in pursuit.

There was one incident where I saw a lone man walking toward us on the sidewalk, weaving a bit. I started a circling maneuver to give him a wide birth and Jethro was all good with that. Then the man yelled at us, "Happy New Year!" and Jethro turned at him and gave a big, old bark and lunge. I've gotten very solid at my grip and reactions to unpredicted events, so he didn't get anywhere. I didn't make a big deal out of it, just a couple of tongue clicks to let him know we were continuing on our way at a brisk pace. I appreciated Jethro's perspective that the man was giving me unwanted, unasked for, attention. Normally if I am greeting someone, I get Jethro to Sit, and Wait, until I say, Okay, and he can say Hello (four on the floor). If I had been alone, I would definitely have felt creeped out by the unwanted attention. I appreciated that Jethro turned it on, briefly, and then turned it off as we moved forward. He seemed pretty unperturbed by the incident.