Worked with Terra today. She is the third dog and usually gets left overs. So with bindi resting, I had a little more time with Terra. She has extremely high drive and she is so smart ti is amazing. Today when she realized I was going to train she ran over to this light switch mock up and tried to to what she sees the other dogs doing. It was so funny. The problem was she is so intense that she was trying to hit the switch, and knock over the mock up and barking, wanting me to hurry up and reward her. We worked on self control, she needs it. She tries but has a hard time sitting still. She has even higher drive than cody. So, we played some games and she was so quick it was amazing.
I am going to try and commit to training her a little bit more. Will do more later.
Her drive is so high that I have to work her in very small amounts cause her drive just builds and builds as we train. Wonder what some of you do with your high drive dog when you train? Does their drive build?
Sharon and her pups terra, bindi, cody.

This weekend was rough. We had family in town and Sam hit a growth spurt. I had planned to get in several short training sessions with him on Saturday, but he was like a cranky toddler and tired. Crated him Saturday night and I am positive he grew almost overnight and by the end of the weekend, he was taller and far more mischievous. I've been told by other giant breed owners to expect growth spurts and that their behavior can vary during those.

Loose leash walking is going to be a big focus this week, using lures to keep him closer to me. He's been testing boundaries a little bit more, like trying to get away with half sits or trying to skip sitting before going through doorways (for safety, we have him do this so when he's full grown, he isn't trying to bolt through). I've been sticking to the "rules" even where it frustrates him and it seems to be working as he realizes he's still not going through the door until I get a good sit and then release him.

NO RAIN!!! I tried to go to agility but it was too slippery for Harley and I had no time for tracking.

So we did some ob work in the barn yard. Harley was pretty good. The about turn were much better, he was slow on the sit in motion. He would also loose focus when the big bugs were attacking him during the heel. So he was trying to get the bugs on the go but once he did drop, roll, scratch and ran back in position.

Next time I will put some fly stuff on him.

Currently working on: standard obedience, 'through' the legs while standing and 'through' a lifted leg for some fun leg dodging, crawling. Thinking about starting to teach the 'send out'.

Retooling touch as a nose/lips and NO TEETH touch command is essentially done. Almost ready to start working on heel from there again.

Working on walking on the hands-free leash setup, which is a precursor to using this setup connected to a bike - it's a carabiner connection and doesn't allow as much room for him to move around as our other leashes do so it's only fair to let him get used to it first he needs to keep his eye on me and our speed more this way.

We did do some mild jogging the other day, he still wants to take the lead in his mouth when running, so need to work on that.

Ball fetching with delivery to my hand is going well. We have it very solid at the stand table out back, and starting to generalize retrieval to other locations, still need the food reward to keep motivating.

Work on the bomb-proof recall has stalled but is still on the list, I hope to get this back with morning walks as I re-establish my own personal schedule.

Play with bite toys were essentially out of the roster for Duke for a couple of months - this did reduce his mouthiness around the house but he still needs a 'doggy pacifier' - has to pick something up to keep from sticking our hands in his mouth, which still always escalates if we allow it, so we don't. I have slowly reintroduced the bite toys for him the last month, he's doing very well at turning OFF afterwards and coming calm into the house. I think I did something wrong with presentation yesterday as he started consistently hitting the side of the bite wedge instead of the middle, which ended up with his tooth stuck between my finger and my ring at one point. Working on getting him to come in solidly, I think he's worried about losing the toy on the first bite. A few weeks ago he was hitting much 'harder' coming in but wasn't usually keeping the toy gripped.

Around the house, he's been very good low energy when my older son is not here, and getting better with his energy levels when he IS here. Still needs to shred toys to keep out of trouble - maybe I'll try an everlasting treat ball for his 'settle down' time.

I did get to observe how he interacted with my parents while they visited for a couple of weeks, one of them being a dog person (step dad) and the other definitely not (mom) - Duke was VERY pushy with mom in the back yard, his space - and moderately pushy in the house. With Rick, Duke was deferential in the house for the first while and became progressively pushier as he got familiar with Rick - I thought that might happen but not entirely sure what to make of it. Still, he's becoming much better behaved around house visitors.

My maternity leave ends tomorrow, so I personally am working on winning the lottery.

(And thus ends that novella!)

Last night, some great ob in the kitchen and outside - Duke heeled in a circle around me as I turned, nicely focused on the treat with his head tucked in a great position. Did pretty good on a down and sit in motion outside. Offleash recall this morning was great (that wasn't planned, AT ALL, glad I brought a cheese stick.)

On the 'oops' side of things, he went under the table and growled at me yesterday when I asked him to give up the everlasting treat disc to put it back in the ball. So he likes that a little too much, and I was rather... alarmed. So I'll be opening a new thread on that.

bump

Last couple of days we have been working on a couple of new behaviors for Bindi. Under is one new behavior. She already knows over. So, that was fun! Then we worked on a couple of her behaviors while I give the cue in different positions. She did very well and is back to her old self, wanting to train, and enjoying herself.
Trained Terra today, man! she is so intense that sometimes it is not enjoyable. She gets crazy, so I have to work to slow her down. We worked on heel again, and targeting.
COdy-a great little man! We reviewed on his behaviors and I am shaping him to turn off a light switch (he is short, Jerry made up a mock light switch) HE did well too. have been taking him to the park at about 9 on mondays, and he is really enjoying it.
Soon with Bindi I will be working on compound cues, opposites and modifiers, that should be fun!
Well hope all is well with all of you and your training. Sharon and her pups, Terra, Bindi, Cody

The long down under distraction remains the downfall for Lash......ahhh, the pitfalls of a true high-drive dog!

it seem like life is getting in the way of my dog time.

Yesterday I had tracking all set up and then a near by firework facility got blown up. The dogs were a bit unsure just like the horses. I am sure that they could hear and smell the fire more then I could. Then just like a normal person, I hit the net to see the live feed.

Today we finally got to play and polish our ob, mostly position change at a distance. Going into a stand is still very hard, sit and down are good.
So when I want him to do a stand, I get a bit closer ask for the stand and then move back. I can sand him out and get a stand and he will stay out there but going into it from a sit or down he still has to take a few step forward if I am too far from him.

Harley is also recovering from an allergic reaction. I thought that changing him from his grain free kibbles to TOTW as Dexter is now on that would make my life simple. Nope, back on Canine Caviar grain free. Dexter won't eat that.

Dexter came with me to teach and work on recall with some very nice treats. We also play with get on the park bench with all 4 legs and then only leaving the back feet on. That made him very insecure. He has no clue of what to do with those hind legs.

I have to try to spend more time with him, but Harley is so much fun or he is a real PITA if he does not work enough.

well, today Harley and I had some fun in the rain.

We worked on focus heel with changes of pace and turns. Also we are working on going from heel to between my legs and back to heel. I am at fading the hand signal.

A side from a couple of lost attention caused my mosquitoes biting Harley's butt thing were nice not too rusty.

I even got some very flashy heel which got a lot of reward.

The out was not so good tonight. He would drop the ball but retake it as soon as it got in my hand. He got the firm "no" and he did hand me the ball back. No lost in drive.

I will try to give him a few more throws to see if more play during the session can fix this.