Agility class today was a lot of fun.

Harley was very good in the weaves. We can now have them at the end, begining or in the middle of a short course.

We did work on distraction from me or other dogs. So we have succeded in doing: me runing ahead of him (hardest), doing front, read and blind cross going in and out of the weaves. And haveing a dog run different obstacles near us while doing the course with weaves.

Harley actualy once decided to improvise his own stuff and went for the weaves, which he did very well, instead of a row of jumps out of the tunel.

Dexter is still at 4 poles. They are getting closer but small slow steps or he get confused. His drive is not as good as a few weeks ago. So I now work him every other day, that gives better results.

Way to go, Harley and Ariane!

You, too, Sharon (and btw, Thanks! Creativity + distraction = solution).

Kristin;
You have me brainstorming sneaky ways to give your county seat the hint about leash laws. So far, everything I've come up with is underhanded, sneaky, and/or outright illegal. Will let you know if I have a GOOD idea...

Got some quality work in this morning. It wasn't stellar, as Sadie was being a knucklehead, but I stuffed my frustration and did a lot of solid reinforcement training.

Started with three short, simple tracks, designed to indicate where we are and what I need to emphasize going forward.
The first was three 10m legs, random bait, unbaited pad, one sharp turn each way with an article at the end. Worked on letting more line out, which is still a little unsettling for her. I had trouble seeing the track and pulled her off the first turn, but she settled. However, without me behind her, she quit at the end rather than indicate on the article. I reinforced the indication, then moved on.

The next track was 30m straight, baited pad, random bait on track, with an article every 10m. She was good on the pad to the first article, and indicated beautifully. However, the next two 10m stretches, she indicated on baits AND articles. SMH!

Thank goodness there was one more track. 50m straight, no bait on pad or track, with three articles, each a little farther than the last. She blew right over the pad, but tracked surely and steadily with a deep nose and indicated perfectly.

Judging by what I saw on these three tracks, she is ready to track to find articles, but I have to keep it short. Our tracking tomorrow will have a baited pad, no bait on the track, lots of articles, progressively adding longer distance to each. I'm not going to get too far back on the line until she's comfortsable tracking without lots of bait.

After tracking, we did some position changes on the tailgate of the truck, some close, some at about 10ft distance. Her stand is really improving, but she wasn't snappy in her position changes. We finished with some focus in the fuss and out-of-motion sits and downs, none of which were very snappy, no matter how much I motivated her.

Now I'm off to our sister club's trial.

Well thi week end I slacked off. I had a very bad week except agility class.

I got a UTI and needed 2 different antibiotic to get it under control. When I felt more human I did some play with Harley then go my horse out of her paddock and she could barely walk!

All my vets were out of reach, by the time one go back to me she was in chock. Finaly found what was off and it was not good. She broke the wing of her left front coffin bone. The good part is that it is just 3/4 of the way up so no joint being touch and we escape surgery. She will need a special shoe and 6 to 10 weeks of total stall rest. Now she would be the equivalent of a very high drive young dog.

I am doing all I can to keep motivated to move on, so dog class, get my coach to work me and my other horse. But my WEG qualification project is now out of reach I know she should be back to work within 6 months.

With all of that I had to get some supplement for her and the place that have it is near my inlaws.
Today traing included going to a tack shop and doing so ob in there, a long down in a change room and stay in there while I got to find some riding pants to try on.

Then the inlaws! More just go chill and lay down. My inlaws are terrified of "mean dogs" they are fine with the next door golden the growl at every one and snap if you get close to him, but DOBES no way. So when ever one of the dogs move a bit, we get the nervous scream and jumps and arm tossing. So a lot of bad energy. Both dogs are getting good at just finding a spot to sleep. Even if the BIL kids, read brats, tease the dogs and run around. I think that I should let Harley chase them but instease I place him under my feet and the bf does the same for Dex.

Next week should be better, except for the incoming snow storm!
I will try to go to the agility center 2 times and on friday Dexter is coming to class for distraction purpose.

Hope your girl recovers quickly and you both stay sane, Ariane!

This weekend was a couple of short walks on a flat collar working on fine-tuning leash pressure without much distraction - doing pretty good there Working on the same ob as usual, relearning 'touch' is going pretty well when we work in low drive - house manners were at their best yet (except for dashing into the screen porch to try and ogle the rabbits and refusing to recall out one of 2 times)

With the good behavior, I pulled the ball back out - working on retrieve back to the pause table and for SOME reason that is absolutely flawless. Maybe this is the same kind of focus you see with the touch pad? Brings the ball to the table every time - releases to me without issue 75% of the time. Hot dogs manage the other 25% Working on releasing directly into my hand.

Also working on developing 'hier' as an automated front and sit - he comes in well and sits 25% of the time. Entry and Exit from the crate and the house has the implied sit and wait down 50% of the time, I will request the behavior if it is not offered in short order.

Personally working on developing impulse control - way too many GSDs showing up at the local shelter lately. Anyone want a bicolor 1.5 year old male of unknown origin?
ETA: Duane, I would love it if that happened - but this part of Georgia is very slow moving to change It's just one more thing to deal with. So far there have been no aggressive dogs (except a neighbor's pom going for my son 2 years ago) but the day that there is, there will be deputies involved pretty darn fast.

"" .... refusing to recall out one of 2 times" and "Working on releasing directly into my hand. "



Would you like some help on cleaning up that 50-50 recall? I know many of us have started over with the recall, and a new thread might help others too.

About releasing into your hand ..... this is something I like to work on as a separate link, even indoors in the living room, even watching TV. It's fun to get that perfect before linking it to the whole retrieve.

It sounds like you are working hard and doing great!

Ariane, I just got over what you just had, and today I finally woke up not all dragged out and almost breathless (from both the illness and the meds). I realized that I had also had a constant low-level nausea, which I almost didn't realize until today when it was gone. This has been many weeks. Hang in there!

Those in-laws..... that's not good energy; you are right. Can the dogs just be kept away from them? I'd probably put them up rather than subject them to that (and those kids). JMO!

I hope your horse is OK. You've had a full plate.

I never post here. I should start doing that.

This morning we worked on a touch pad for her breakfast. She understands the word 'touch' and so I reinforced it and then started luring her to move her back end with a food jackpot reward whenever she'd move a bit. My luring sucks, for some reason I'm completely incapable of holding treats the way I should, and I have the problem that anything over her head has her going into a down and barking at me out of frustration and confusion.

Why is it that behaviors I don't want are learned almost instantly, but anything I want her to know takes forever and some magical skill? I think we seriously need to enter into some formal OB classes. I'm doing something wrong and I'm too thick to figure it out.

Have you watched luring on the On Demand clips?



ETA
Do you mean backing up?


Edited by Connie Sutherland (03/18/2013 11:17 AM)
Edit reason: eta

Ariane...Hope you and the Missus get back to 100% as quick as possible.

Kristin... I use "come", but I trained the auto front and sit, and I love it. Not only does it translate directly to the schutzhund field, but it keeps focus on me when I recall during her daily off-leash run. She used to be bad about getting 95% of the way back, then heading toward a distraction or running ahead of me to the yard. Now, if she veers at the last second, a sharp "NO!" tells her all she needs to know, instead of repeating the command.



Yesterday's tracking went really well. I made the necessary adjustments after Saturdays evaluation, and she tracked very well on a course with minimal bait and lots of articles. There were errors in my line handling, but once I overcame the HUA, we settled in and all was fine.

While at the field, we did some beautiful dumbbell work. I'm working on counting out the three-second hold. I didn't think she was holding long enough, but when I counted the seconds, she was calm and square every time. The only other rough spot, is that she is a little slow on the pickup. She doesn't kill herself to scoop it up in one motion, but she doesn't overrun it, has a very calm, sure pickup, and comes directly back. She is also getting tighter to me without bumping, and without the additional reinforcement (half step back) that was sometimes needed.

We finished the session with an OB pattern and some extra out-of-motion exercises. We've been doing this for a solid year, and she is STILL slow getting into position. She still hates to see me walking away from her.