Yesterday was school day for Bindi. We worked on waits, down waits, recall, front and finishes, and major distractions with, a battery operated Kitty that moves and meows as we asked for waits, and major food distractions with a yogurt container, some left over food on a plate, a bowl that had chicken salad in it, the trainer would sit in a chair and offer the dogs to eat it, we had to call our dogs and give the leave it command. Bindi did very well. She knew she couldn't have it. We did this twice and the second time I left her with the trainer at the other side of the room and started to walk away, she just followed me back. She is pretty good with distractions. The kitty kinda got to her though, she didn't break her wait, but her head was tilting all over the place as the kitty meowed and moved its head.
Need to work on standing over her with her body between my feet. She doesn't like it. I think I will train the place command. But first I want to figure out the hand signal for her that won't confuse her when I give the right finish hand signal.
IT was sunday so no other work with the other dogs.
Today bindi goes to her Rally O class. It is our second time. I am like a turtle when it comes to the signs. Bindi does very well. Sharon
Sharon

Sasha and I are back to working on the left pivot again. Ugh! It's good enough that we won't lose points (well, maybe 1) but not anywhere close to what I really want. I get frustrated and end up giving up and doing something else that Sasha loves, like hand touches or spins.

I'm going to start looking for different way to teach it. I have to be careful, because she is very sensitive and if I get upset, she'll lie down and refuse to work. She's been very good at teaching me patience.

We're also working on training Sasha to get her nails dremelled. This is definitely a work in progress. After 2 weeks of work, she'll stay nice and relaxed as I just touch the dremel to a few nails. She's come a long way from the first day I turned the dremel on and she ran and tried to hide under the coffee table. She's 175 lbs; she didn't fit.

Working on stay with lots of distraction for our agility start. Distraction included a jump, fying balls, a cat, Dexter running, me screaming running and doing stupid stuff.

All good but if I toutch the jump he still break, I have to keep an eye on him to correct him. I would like to be able in the future to point the jump turn my back wall some then get him to GO. It will take some time and work.

Greetings,
My first post, I have a 4 month old GSD, today I worked on you guessed it, engagement, sorry boring I know We were lucky enough to find an empty tennis court while hunting for a new training area which offered plenty of distraction with guaranteed confinement so took the lead off and did engagement with basic obedience, some stays, a lot of unrestrained recall and finished off with some tug and retrieve. Then we stopped at the vet while walking home to visit the magic treat dispensing scale.
A great day all around

Nothing boring about engagement Billy, other than heeling which still needs work, engagement took up the rest of my training time today just playing with the mutts trying to build some more motivation to improve the heeling!

Today is going to be a play day for my Bindi girl. She is a very serious dog and needs to lighten up a bit and play. So today we are going to play out back. I hope to play with the others as well, playing with them one at a time.
Will work on some behaviors with bindi- heel, sit, wait, wait with walk arounds in different positions, front and finishes and back command all intwined with play.
Cody- we are working on his fear issues, and working towards his good puppy citizen certificate.
Fear of people touching him may hinder that, but we are working on it.
terra-heel, which she is doing very well at. Sit, down, wait, leave it are going to be what we work on for now. Getting her ready to proof these areas at the pet dog training school.
Me- learning all the signs for rally and doing the mechanics of them without a dog.

Bindi did amazing at her rally o training. It is her second time and as we did the course I could hear the others talking about her and what a great dog she is, her engagement, her precision, her willingness to work. I heard the trainer say to someone- she is an extraordinary dog. She is just a little mut in the midst of the beautiful pure breds and doing better than I think they thought she would. I was very blessed by her little dog heart. I have nothing against pure bred dogs just wanted to say that in case this didn't read how I intended it. I hope to get a pure bred dog one day. But love the little muts I have now.
Sharon

Some of my best friends were little mutt dogs.

Last evening we worked on holding the dumbbell, focus in heeling, backing up, and adding distance to the position changes.

Sasha and I went to a new Rally training class today and I've learned another way to teach the left pivot and my girl is getting it. Still a long way to go to get it to where I want but she was enthusiastic about it and actually eager to work.

Dremelling practice tonight; we managed to completely finish one paw. Yeah!!! and jackpot of treats. I hope to have all four feet done by the end of the week.

I am interested in the new method to teach the pivot, I also work in rally. Could you share it with me? The middle dog in this picture is Bindi, she is the one who is excellent in rally, we just started our training sessions for rally doing courses set up by the teacher, she does wonderfully, me however, I need to learn the foot work and signs so I don't mess her up.
So, let me know about the new way to teach the pivot. sharon

Edited by Sharon Empson (12/05/2012 07:57 AM)
Edit reason: correction of sentence

Did some fun stuff over the last few days.

Nosework, finaly got my boy to think hard. I did a hide between the fridge and the microweave in the barn. It did take him some time to figure out where was the smell.

I got the the agility early so I could do some ob work in the nice large room. We did scare some advance student that were waiting for their class to start. They could not get over the down and sit in motion or the recall were I stand with my back to Harley and he still come right in front of me.

Agility was fun. The handler was fairly well coordinated for a change and did not got lost. Harley was very good. We got some very nice crosses and turns. We were stuck with the more advance group and did some more complicated stuff. That was a lot of fun.