Today a friend came over and they were put to their "mat" and had to wait there. They held their position. It is hard because this friend is their puppy sitter and they love her.
Tonight I am going to be working on Bindi's skills, review-wait, sit, down, stand, heel, and turns. I have been reviewing their "leave it" command when I feed them. They have to leave their food until I release them. They are doing well there too. They are good dogs, I have been blessed. Tomorrow I will work with Cody and Terra. Terra doesn't get worked with as much as she should. I am working up a schedule to get them trained each day. Sometimes with 3 dogs I just don't have time to train each of them. Taking her to the vet is a great way to put her manners to work. She also has to ignore other dogs and not be distracted from my commands in a place of stress.
That 's it for me. Sharon, and pups Bindi, Cody, Terra
Oh, Terra gets her blood work done on Tues. Hoping she is still normal and we can discontinue the rest of her meds we've been weaning her off of. She had a blood disorder earlier this year. It was touch and go for awhile, she has been doing well since then. Her blood got down to 14! So, I am looking forward to seeing what it is now.
Shaorn

More tracking. Three 50m legs, with two articles on each. First leg was the training pattern, to get her started solid. Second leg was randomly baited. Third leg was regular steps, rather than toe-to-heel.

Today I worked Cody on the heel. SInce coming home from the hospital he is afraid of many things, especially noises. So, we are out and about to get him used to noises. He did awesome at heel today while out. Of course being a holiday it was very quiet.
I also worked Terra. I am teaching her "mark". She started wanting to do it when she watched the other dogs do it. She offered the behavior on her own on the "mark" (the piece of wood we stand on for pivoting) . So, we started practicing today. She is very fast in carrying out her behaviors. She did well. We also went over sit and down away from the mark, and the "mat" command -that means going to your spot on your mat.
SHe is smart as a whip. She has recovered from her blood disorder well and tomorrow we are getting her blood checked. She wants to learn so I am sure she will catch up with the other dogs before we know it.
Happy with how things going.
Great to hear how you guys are doing with your training. I learn a lot from reading your posts. Sharon

Time for the next step; 50ft short straight track with no bait, toe-to-heel. Article every 7ft.
She downed without help on six of seven; position needs to be improved.
Grade= B-

that's great! Today I hope to work on bindi and her heeling and turning from my rally list of turns and commands. For Terra, Lord willing I will be able to take her for a walk. Tried to train her last night. She is very intense and loves it, so we will see how she does today when I take her outside to train her.
Cody- working on noises. Going to look for a cd of background electronic noises and play very, very, very low while he eats. Hoping to change his mind re: electronic noises.
Will continue to work on "mark" and pivots and heel.
Taking them out front hopefully today. We have a new neighbor who has 5 dogs, one female and 4 males and one male puppy from mama's newest litter. they get out every day and run the neighborhood. Hoping they won't be along our fence line today.
May have to start calling the animal control to get them picked up. Hate to do it. But they just can't seem to keep their dogs in the yard. Of course this is also another training opportunity too!
Sharon

I did not work Harley today, I let one of my horse vet play with him. He is at his 3rd GSD and his new pup is very high drive. So he was trying to trade his tech for Harley so he can get used to the energy level.

Harley was good about it, a bit confused at first a slower to respond. Then we gave him a bit of a show with a ball as a reward.
All we did was some basic ob in the indoor arena during a thunder storm.

He was very impressed by the fact that he is a rescue My dream pup was someone nightmare

I've been using this thread as my training blog/diary, and especially for the tracking. I guess I'll have to suck it up and post the bad with the good, as I really need to keep up on this stuff.

I intended to repeat yesterday's awesome performance on the articles-only track. However, upon returning to the track with dog-in-tow (really me-in-tow), there was a neighbor a half block away walking his wife's purse dog. The yipper goes ballistic seeing Sadie, and being her all-too-willing-to-accomodate, reactive self, she returns the sentiment. I redirect her to the track.
She took scent properly, but when she started down the track and it wasn't baited, she decided it was more fun to check over her shoulder for the rugrat. I got frustrated and forced her back to the track twice. She finally got to the first article and indicated properly, but after the reward and praise, she peeked back over her shoulder AGAIN. I fussed her, she got to her feet to resume the track, and I gave the "such" command, which is our standard routine. This time, when I gave the command, she downed again. I uttered some expletives, gave her a correction, and we resumed tracking.
The rest of the track was
-track to article
-indicate article
-reward and praise party
-"such" command
-crawl forward on belly, OR down again if she had already risen.

Grades:
Dog= D-
Handler= as F as it gets.

Some days you're the windshield; some days, you're the bug.
At least I know how to fix this, thanks to Anne Jones!

Tuesday and again on Wednesday evening I came down with a horrible headache that had me nauseous, so I had to skip out on prime 'not hot' training and exercise time.

This morning we woke up early and worked on obedience and laid a small 10 meter track. Radar did VERY well with the hotdogs so I think we'll stick to them.

Trackig; back to a short, basic track, with three articles. No repeat of yesterday's debacle. Good work on the articles. She did lift her head for a barking dog, but I kept my cool and she resumed tracking on the "such" command.
Grade= B-

I just set up a short easy track for Harley. He is still a bit sore from the foot abcess.

Today it is the first day of the agility clinic next door. Harley is very upset at all the high energy barking.

I can't get him to do any ob even for his favorit treat or toy. Dexter on the other hand would love to be invited to the dog party.