This week was: learning the 'settle down' command which is going swimmingly well (laying down and resting on his side and RELAXING, who thought you'd need to teach that?) more fun with retrieving, and a 5 am trip to the dog park courtesy of insomnia - Duke learned all the equipment in seconds to a minute, though he wasn't a fan of the texture on the catwalk. I am pretty sure that 'through' the tunnel was his favorite, though it took the longest to get the hang of, and he wasn't at all certain why I wanted him to jump over a 2' pole and through a 2' 'window' when he can almost walk over/through it, but he did it anyways!

He got some picnic treats and very appreciated love at the public park yesterday (people admiring from a distance and him staying appropriately neutral! Noone asked to pet him! YAY!) with some questions from owners of a lab/gsd puppy and another lady called him a wolf dog (>.< but noone tried to get their kids to go up to him, so that made me grateful for parents with brains. After the boy was done playing we had Duke go down the tube slide. Hilarious. His only moments of acting out were when he was held back with my husband and I was on the equipment with our boy, he clearly wanted to join in.

His new bite toys get here tomorrow probably, 1 year birthday next week. Gonna get him a whole fryer chicken, I think he'll like that better than a damned cake We should be building an adjustable scaling wall sometime this month, I'm also pushing for a pause table since we have the scrap for it. Poor hubby has the weirdest 'honey-do' list ever.

Today We worked on:
BIndi- took at walk and then stopped for training, worked on: heel, turns, back command, recall.
Bindi has a habbit of coming in an arch to me on the recall. Started close to her and moved back in segments with the recall. She did well. Working from the beginning again and trying to strengthen her recall. She does pretty well. At Rally class she went wide and didn't hit center on the front. So, working on those to perfect it.
Cody- fear issues, went to Petsmart. Did pretty good. A little more nervous then usual since I have been ill and not feeling well enough to take him there for awhile. He'll do better once we get back in the swing.
Terra- worked on heel as we walked. She is very hyper and has a hard tome sitting still during training. Example: when sitting in training, she marches in place...as she waits to be released.
She did pretty well. Doing ok in school too. Afraid of dogs barking at her. But does well with leaving distractions as she walks next to me.
May re home her. Not sure yet. She needs a family where she is the only dog and get tons of attention. She is a real love bug. Will see how it all pans out. So planning on training her to be a good obedient dog for a possible new family.
Well, tomorrow is running around in the back yard and getting on the treadmill for the pups.
Work on recall. May do restrained recall. Not sure heard there is a big storm coming.
Great to hear all about how you all are training your dogs and the progress they are making.

Sharon, and her pups Bindi Cody and Terra

still shaping the entry for the 2x2. It is slowly getting better.

then work on heel and out of motion excersise. Than was good.

I am always suprise of what can be highly motivating for him. Today he was nut for a carrot.

I played with Dexter mostly engagement and some basic ob.

Today I took Terra to school. She did well. She is relaxing now and is starting to let her personality and quick response is coming through. She doesn't seem the least bit worried about that dog that barked and barked during the training. So, I am proud of her. She is the pup that is very shy and even now even though I have had her for about 3 years, when I go to pet her she still crouches toward the ground. But inside very, very sweet, loves kids, very, very gentle.
Today we worked on sit, down and waits, with heel and distractions and being left for a 3 min -out of sight. She did very well. They trainer even handled her, looking in her ears, brushing her, and touching her feet. She didn't mind, of course she was munching on turkey while it happened. But for her that is great progress.
Took Cody to petsmart for the fear work. My husband went, who cody is crazy about. Everytime cody did anything brave he would get his treat from me and run like crazy to Jerry as it to show him what he did. He is dong much better with being near men strangers. I always let them feed him the treats I bring them. And then later, I will feed the treats to cody as they touch him. He has developed friendships with the groomers too! He is quite a character!
Worked on heel, sit and down at the store, he did wonderfully.
Nothing for bindi today, much to her dismay I took Terra to school and not her.
Rained all day so couldn't go outside and work. Tomorrow is another day.

Sharon and her pups Bindi Cody and Terra.

Edited by Sharon Empson (02/20/2013 12:38 AM)
Edit reason: type O

yesterday one of Harley favorit person was at the barn, one of our leg vet who is also into IPO. He is very impress of the quality I got from doing almost all by myself. He also find the speed Harley has pretty amazing compare to his GSD (imported west german WL).

It makes for long vet vist as he spend half the time playing with Harley. Dexter will not come out of the house. Because the other cazy is there and he will want to play.

Harley showed off his send out and position change at long distance, even his stand was rocky solid at 60'.

He have to say Dexter want to do stuff lately but I can't figure out how to be fun for him. His favorit game is to be chased around or chase stuff. The ball is not much fun as it stop moving or goes too far too fast. He will tug but realy not long or hard more like if I hae to.
His food drive is up too and it work fine for basic stuff but I can't seem to get more complexe behaviour going.

Today I worked on loose lease walking, eye contact under distraction, "down" under distraction, playing dead, touch pads, and engagement with Carlin's new today.

Success:
1) non-reinforcement marker. Carlin finally "got" this! During our review of the basics (sit, down, stand, touch, paw, etc), when I said "nope!" he offered a new behavior and/or tried to correct his behavior (for example on the touch pads). This is a big step forward, because I had been pretty horrible in conditioning it.

2) Engagement! I picked up a new toy this weekend, and Carlin LOVES it more than any of his others, including different puppy and beginner tugs, ropes, plush, etc. I noticed that Carlin prefers to tug on soft things with narrow diameter (my beginner intuition attributes this to having a weak jaw due to his gun shot and never having played tug during his first year). However, if it was soft enough for him to enjoy, it would get destroyed in a few days or I couldn't utilize it properly as a tug toy.

But, in one of the ME videos I have, one of the GSDs was playing with a toy that ME sort of dismissed (very big, hard to shove in a pocket, etc), but then the dog really opened up and played with it. I was intrigued by the toy, and finally found one in the store. I bought a smaller version for ease of use in OB, and it worked! I'm really psyched about this, as so far today we played tug with this toy 3 times (each time ending with him wanting more), and EACH of our 3 sessions was longer than he was EVER interested in a toy in a day TOTAL. Woohoo!

This toy is soft rubber (it gives but doesn't break), and is narrow enough for him to get a good grip on (he had a problem with sliding off on his other toys), but because it has so many "holes" it's super easy for him to grab.

Congrats on your success and great that you found something your dog really enjoys. Just remember this toy belongs to YOU not the dog. A particular reason to follow that rule is because of the "small diameter" of the gripping areas. That would be way to easy for the dog to chew/break off a chunk and choke on it. Don't leave him alone with it.
If Carlin has a weak jaw you should also be careful with playing tug.

Thanks! All of his toys are mine, they stay in a box unless we are using them. Also, I've been very careful with tug, and I never push him. Today was the first time I've seen him look like a malinois with a toy! Thanks for the suggestions and advice, as always. This community really has some great people helping the newbs!

We finally got a break in the rain, so we were able to meet at the club for only the second time in 2013.

Considering the long layoff, Sadie was spot on. We did a flawless OB pattern, and practiced crowd training. We then did some dumbbell work, including three retrieves over a 30" jump. Her holds were square and solid, with good duration. We did pbly 6-8 reps over the wall, though she's not retrieving over the wall yet.

We spent the rest of the evening playing tug on the field. She has really come a long way! She tugged every time I asked her. There were a ton of distractions, and she checked out a couple of times, but reengaged with minimal effort from me. I handed off the tug to TD and another helper while she was engaged, and she played with them. I also introduced her to a burlap sack, and she got the idea immediately.

When we got home, she made several attempts at getting me to play "kick the knucklebone". She likes the sound it makes when it bounces on the tile floor. She is now passed out on the cool tile. She'll sleep good tonight.

 Quote: Ariane Gauthier

He have to say Dexter want to do stuff lately but I can't figure out how to be fun for him. His favorit game is to be chased around or chase stuff. The ball is not much fun as it stop moving or goes too far too fast. He will tug but realy not long or hard more like if I hae to.
His food drive is up too and it work fine for basic stuff but I can't seem to get more complexe behaviour going.

Ariane;
You could try attaching a ball to a long line to control how far it goes and to keep it moving. You could also try a flirt pole.