I was prepping the shrimp for our supper and Dan decided to see if he liked it, he only had the one piece so fishy smell was limited

Sam did really good in practice yesterday. While practicing downs and settling with distractions, I noticed he's lost 2 of his baby teeth and his gums were sore, so I wasn't expecting too much during the puppy circle in protection. He did, however, get more playful and chase the tug, but didn't want to get a firm bite on it. I can certainly understand that! He is doing better and better with dogs and people around him.

This morning on our morning walk we had a big breakthrough for him that I have to brag about. We were walking by a house when an Australian Shepherd came charging out on his balcony, barking and growling. Sam looked at the Aussie, but didn't even bark or show any signs of nervousness and just looked back at me and we walked on. He got some good pieces of hot dog for that!

Tonight we're going to play the 2 tug game in the backyard and practice sits, downs, and stands.

Been working on our 10 part behavior chain for my final in my clicker training course. IT has been a challenge for me to make sure I do not do any extra movements so bindi doesn't get mixed up with body movements thinking they are cues.
So we practiced our behaviors from bottom to top of the chain in 4 behavior chunks. Also working on stimulus control with the props ( a cone ) it has been challenging but fun. This is all part of my final. In order to pass i have to have an A. Hoping Bindi does well. I am nervous.
Since I have been working on her and the behavior chain, I have not worked with the other dogs. My husband has been working with Cody, practicing his behaviors.
So glad to hear that Sam did really well with the situation with the Australian Shepherd that came charging toward him.
Keep up the great work!
Sharon and her pups bindi cody terra

Club night last night...

For our OB session, we worked on polishing position at the finish of the recall ("come" and "opied") and building focus in the "fuss". TD came out with a puppy that he wanted to desensitize to strange dogs (it gets along fine with its kennelmates). I wanted to proof Sadie's desensitizing, but he let the pup get too close too fast, and Sadie was flooded. The pup made a submissive move toward her in an effort to play, but she still turned into the exorcist and I had to withdraw. She calmed down immediately.

During protection, TD transitioned her from the rags and tugs to a bite wedge and she took to it right off. I had been following a multitude of tips about techniques to get her to grip and was getting nowhere. The proper equipment (right tool for the job) makes all of the difference in the world. Now I have some shopping to do.

Sounds like Sadie is really getting the hang of it, Duane!

Tonight we'll be working in the backyard on the two tug game to work on possession and then some basic muscle memory work for heeling eventually. I'd also like to work in one puppy track since I might not have a ton of time to work with him tomorrow evening and we have tracking practice on Saturday.

I'm hoping he'll be all wound up on Saturday once he finds out where we are.

How are things at the club, Karen?

Things are getting back to normal now that I'm a couple of weeks removed from the OT schedule. Sadie has been a shut-in during the day because of the heat. She has a lot of pent-up energy that I've been wanting to redirect to training, and this evening was the first time we had a chance to work at leisure on something other than bitework.
The last few times that we worked on obedience, we had kinda hit a wall where Sadie's motivation in the retrieve and the send-away was waning. I had tried building through drive, with no success. I picked up a tip from an Ivan video about changing the timing of the mark, and I was b&d to implement it as deliberately as possible.
When I got home this evening,Sadie was extremely anxious to do anything. I did a couple of reps of a new parlor trick and noticed that her food drive was also amped, so I grabbed her dumbbell, a touch pad, and some treats and took our show to the yard. The change of timing paid off (and I realized that it was the same thing I had done to build speed in her recall) in both exercises. We also worked on increasing focus in the fuss, and brushed up on the out-of-motion exercises and the long and random downs.

I signed Tanner up for another training class. He is another "positive" trainer and it's a much busier location so hopefully this class will be worth it.

Spent time with Tanner and Cookie, the new cockatiel, in the same room just relaxing. Tanner needs to get used to it's sounds and movements just like he did with the parakeet. Seeing him on my hand really freaks him out so I'm going to give him a few days of just seeing it move around the cage.

Sam and I were accepted into the club!!!

Today we were unable to attend practice due to family visiting from out of town, but we worked on obedience at home using everything we could find as distractions. House with barking dogs? We'll do sits in front. Someone in the front yard? Plotz on the road. I knew he was on to the game when a car went by and he turned and looked at me like, "Ok...what are we going to work on now?!" (Yes, I stuffed his face with treats for that eye contact! ) I find myself looking for distractions and things he's wary of on walks to use rather than avoiding them. They're great training tools and another way to build his growing confidence. (And now, thanks to my own enthusiasm, I have a dog that thinks he should swerve to walk over sewer grates with rushing water under them. Lol)

I'm so proud of him.

That's GREAT that you are in the club!!! What good news.

Also .... good work!

congrats Karen Got some big green monster on my back over here!

We 'worked' by which I mean played a little bit this morning. I took out the bite wedge before feeding Duke and let him tug me all over the yard before I let him eat.