Today is my first practice back at the club since going out for surgery. I'm excited and hoping I can wear Sam out a bit. It's been rough on both of us with me not being able to work him for almost 2 weeks! I was so happy when I got the thumbs up from my surgeon to start back up as well as the assurance that if he does knock my nose, the worst that will happen is that it will bleed and hurt like heck, but it won't reverse the surgery's effects. (I had my septum straightened, all the bone it removed, and my turbinates shaved...not so fun.)

In the time we've been down, Sam's gotten a bit of a teenager attitude, so I'm interested to see if that improves as we get back on schedule or if he's going to start trying to push boundaries. He's 6 months old now, so it would be right on schedule. LOL

Trooper is very solid on the box searches now.
I'm having a hard time NOT putting the target odor in with the food in order to imprint him on that.....BUT I'm going to follow the trainer's instructions.
Cmon Wednesday evening!

Played a little bit of hide and seek this morning - put Duke in a stay and hid around and behind bushes with the bite wedge, got some nice hard hits where his back end swung around a bit and he didn't want to give up. Fun game!

Sam was so excited to be back on the field that we really couldn't get much done as far as obedience last night. He was just beside himself and all puppy brain. LOL!

He did do a little better in protection and played tug with the helper with a good, firm, steady grip.

I'm going to back up some tonight and go back to basics with focus and basic commands. He's gotten confused between my "good" and "yes" commands and seems to think that "good" is a release and he's a lot more distracted, but I think it mostly has to do with the break in training we've had.

It's really good to get back to business!

" He's gotten confused between my "good" and "yes" commands and seems to think that "good" is a release"


You might want to start a thread about getting the marker (terminal bridge) and any intermediate bridge mixed up (if that's what you're saying .... I think it is).




It sounds like you are both having a good time!

I've tried to phrase this a couple of times and I can't find a good way.
There was a walk.

Offleash female - not a big problem, she came and said hi while I tried to keep us moving as briskly as possible and we got through relatively quickly and Duke stopped looking at her in a satisfactorily short period (still needs work)

Offleash submissive male - basically tossing himself under Duke and I's feet until we could barely move. I ended up kicking him in the ribs a couple of times AND Duke ended up snapping at him, I'm at a loss for what to do about this dog. No leash laws here. I have notified his owner multiple times that he's offlead on the main highway, she seems drastically disinterested and I'm afraid the issue may shortly resolve itself

OB on the long walk this morning was an almost complete failure, he was completely distracted by the environment long before we got to any dogs. I worked on marking attention on me when we stopped moving.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

" He's gotten confused between my "good" and "yes" commands and seems to think that "good" is a release"


You might want to start a thread about getting the marker (terminal bridge) and any intermediate bridge mixed up (if that's what you're saying .... I think it is).




It sounds like you are both having a good time!

I'm not sure if that's the terminology, but it sounds like it might be. It seems to be clearing up by itself as we get back into working. I've just backed up to how I taught the "good" and the "yes" in the first place and he seems to be getting it again.

Last night, because he had puppy energy that badly needed draining and I quickly saw that my plans for obedience work were not going to get a lot of focus, I switched things up and made it more of a play session with a few basic commands thrown in and we played a lot of tug, working on his targeting and my presentations.

It seems like his drive is back and then some. He had some really nice grips and was in puppy heaven playing! I do need to work on my presentations and he also needs to clean things up a bit. He had one miss that hit my arm and I got my first tug related bruise and there were a couple of times, after he got more tired, that he nipped at my hand when going for the tug. I did think it was good that he did not use full force when he went after my hand, but that's when I ended the game and we did a little obedience to finish off on a positive note.

I'm going to watch the Michael Ellis tug video again. I watched it when he was a smaller pup, but now that he's pushing 70lbs and his drive is back, I think I could use some more instruction.

Tonight, I'm planning a training walk to work on focus and then a shorter session of play in the backyard to work out some more of that pent up energy. It was good to see him contentedly calm and relaxed as well as happy last night after all our play!

bump!

It's obedience and protection practice day with our club...and our FIRST SNOW of the season!!! I doubt the field will have any accumulation, but we will need to bundle up well. It will be interesting seeing how this effects handling. We'll also have to start worrying more about moose wandering into our practice field. It definitely is interesting doing Schutzhund in Alaska!

I've gone back to basics with Sam and it is really working well. We've been playing more tug and doing a little less obedience with me working on reloading my terminal marker and also rewarding for focus. Along that line, I plan on keeping things simple during obedience practice tonight and doing most of my work on building focus by rewarding him for focusing on me rather than distractions with maybe a few very basic commands added in here and there. I think I just need to get him used to just being on the field again without his puppy brain going nuts.

Protection we'll likely just play tug with the helper. He is getting more and more into it and getting a nice grip now and then! Best of all, he is starting to really light up and come alive when he knows he's going to get to play tug, which is great to see. I am thinking of getting some gloves while I'm learning better presentations and he's getting better at targeting, though. Any recommendations?

Tomorrow I have a good, long walk planned with more rewarding for focus. He is settling back down at home nicely now that I'm able to work with him again.

I´ve been training some rear end awareness with both my girls. I started with ME technique but continued with some agility foundation dude.
I spent like a month only on them stepping on the can, about a week ago i put some order on my training and now im only teaching the heel position and the close (to the right). And doing some position changes.

Today we finally made the connection between move your butt to touch my leg with both, Sookie and Havanna. I need to work the close because Havanna was not getting on position right or i needd to help her. And Sookie tryied to be on my left time all the time....3 fails on her and she shut down and didnt want to even step on the can.

We played with the "rat", its a toy that a friend of mine give the girls and its like a little flat animal...i dont know but they seem to love it!