Still working on the weaves.
Dexter seem to love to do it but has no concept of what he should do. I have to sling him in the pole, kind of. But he is more then happy to run for a treat or even a ball.

Harley is getting pretty good. I had to back off to 4 poles in a straight line. I just added to 3rd set and he just did 3 perfect clean run.

Yes I had to trow the reward earlier so Harley keep on going after the last pole.

I did not really do much with Harley as he did hurt himself, again. He sliped on ice in the staires. Some days I think that his feet move faster then his brain can think!

Agility class.

Harley's leg is much better but still no jumping permitted.
He is getting very solid on 6 poles with entries on the on or off side even with bad angles.

He finished with 3 perfect run of 2 set of 6 poles, space between the 2 sets.

I can send him from pretty far and don't have to be by his side for him to weave but I can also walk/run or go ahead of him from any side and he still do it!

His biggest problem is speed or lack of collection from speed. At 80# and 26" tall he is a big boy and he can run but the weave poles are at 24" so he has to rock back, not easy yet.

Dexter still want to play even for the ball but he is a bit less excited about it. I will go back to food. I am still not sure that he gets the concept of the game at this point.

I was early at the class this morning so I could work on some ob. We practice our stays (down, sit and stand). Stand is the hardest one. It is strange our, when we do ob work I can run an agility course and he can stay in a down no problem but when I want a down during agility it does not happen. He will down but not stay. Some how he will sit and stay while I do a lead out and do stupid stuff around jumps or obstacles. But down on the side line no way, unless I am near him. At least he gave up on the screaming/whining while we wait.

Good tracking and training this morning.

We started with a nice 300m track designed to shake off the rust. I mixed in plenty of challenges, varying bait frequency and stride length. I did, however, help her with all of the articles to make sure she got back into the swing of indicating, and I laid a 100m leg that was baited every five steps, to reinforce primary scent discrimination and give her a chance to settle in and focus. She tracked steadily with a deep nose, and stayed focused all the way to the end.

After tracking, I released her for a run. Once she had burned off the edge, I started mixing in some long distance downs and sits. We worked on the long down, and did some pivot, front, and sit-down-stand position changes. We did an OB pattern, complete with out-of-motion exercises. Lastly, I wanted to do some dumbbell work, but Sadie was tired from 45 minutes of intense training and was not motivated for the dumbbell. I managed to get one nice short retrieve in order to end on a high note.

More tracking and training.

Another 300m track, with more challenges than yesterday. Stiff breeze, a little more distance on the tracking line, and longer unbaited sections (restricted to the downwind legs). I only helped with the first article, and she indicated the last three perfectly on her own. She blew the first turn, from downwind to crosswind in the strong wind. She also faltered a bit on the crosswind legs because I wasn't as close, but she worked it out and showed that she understands the work and stays focused to the end.

Released her for a run and worked on sits and downs at long distance and the long down. We did some dumbbell work before she got tired, then finished with a BH OB pattern. Everything was solid.

Got Carlin to engage with me/a toy today at my girlfriend's soccer game, which was fairly high distraction. He LOVES to wrestle, more so than tug, so I started wrestling with him and then redirected him to the toy.

Wound up getting about 5 small tug sessions in. Only 1 of those was out of redirection from wrestling, the others were rewards from a down stay. I don't know if this is normal, but if I were to wave the toy in front of his face, he would ignore it, but if I offer it to him after marking his down stay, he will engage in a nice game of tug... Either way, he's coming along

We've also been doing a LOT of socialization, and he is not leash reactive to men walking by at ALL anymore. Every day on our 3 mile walk, we go past a grocery store, and I stand near the doors on the sidewalk, and practice OB in front of all the people walking in and out and along the sidewalk.

When a person is coming close, I have him go between my legs (PLACE) and look at me (WATCH) or lay down (DOWN). He LOVES the place command, and does it with great energy.

Now, I still need to work on having someone greet me with him so close, pretty sure he would break his place if a man rtied to shake my hand... I have a Hound of Baskerville muzzle, perhaps it's time to break it out and do some practice runs with trusted friends?

 Quote: John Vanek

Wound up getting about 5 small tug sessions in. Only 1 of those was out of redirection from wrestling, the others were rewards from a down stay. I don't know if this is normal, but if I were to wave the toy in front of his face, he would ignore it, but if I offer it to him after marking his down stay, he will engage in a nice game of tug... Either way, he's coming along

I do something similar with Sadie when she's distracted and doesn't immediately engage.

This means the toy is increasingly becoming more valuable to him. Mark the down/stay, and use the tug as reward (as you are doing), and as it becomes a high-value reward, it will become a very valuable training tool.

Have you watched the "Power of Playing Tug With Your Dog" video? It will teach you how to use the tug in training.
http://leerburg.com/221.htm

"Advanced Concepts of Motivation", after the tug video, will help you take the game to new levels.

 Quote: Duane Hull

 Quote: John Vanek

Wound up getting about 5 small tug sessions in. Only 1 of those was out of redirection from wrestling, the others were rewards from a down stay. I don't know if this is normal, but if I were to wave the toy in front of his face, he would ignore it, but if I offer it to him after marking his down stay, he will engage in a nice game of tug... Either way, he's coming along

I do something similar with Sadie when she's distracted and doesn't immediately engage.

This means the toy is increasingly becoming more valuable to him. Mark the down/stay, and use the tug as reward (as you are doing), and as it becomes a high-value reward, it will become a very valuable training tool.

Have you watched the "Power of Playing Tug With Your Dog" video? It will teach you how to use the tug in training.
http://leerburg.com/221.htm

"Advanced Concepts of Motivation", after the tug video, will help you take the game to new levels.

Yes, I have both. I think it's time for a re-watch of the tug video now that he is becoming more interested in it. I really liked advanced concepts too, it has certainly helped.

Right now Carlin has much more food drive than toy drive, but I can see the prey drive in him, so ideally I'll become a good enough handler to unleash the prey into toy drive eventually.

This morning: Remedial Touch 101 (with a hand target). He's great at it IN GENERAL but has been using his teeth on the target. Working on retraining that one starting this morning, he clearly understood that what he THOUGHT was touch isn't right (stopped and sat and gave me the "WTH, Mom?" look and refused to try again when I told him what he was doing was not correct for the command for the 5th or 6th time. I told him 'ehh, no bite' for a touch with teeth. He clearly thought that touch ALWAYS INCLUDED TEETH because I started it luring with food - even once the food was eliminated I tolerated the gnawing for far far too long) I expect we'll be starting over every day with this one for a week or so and hopefully going forward NOT need to start from scratch with a new command. - since the basic concept was well understood with me screwing up on the finer points of use your nose, not your teeth! GEEZ! By the end of this morning's session I had him touch my palm's placement on the other side of the glass door with his mouth closed which I praised the heck out of, so hopefully if I keep right on top of that we'll have that one 'fixed'.

Kristin, another (and possibly easier) option you have is to teach it over again with a new command.

I was thinking about that, but am leery of leaving him with a command that says, in his mind, bite this thing, that would not be a bite command to any reasonable third party. How many months would that take to extinct out?