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Flirt pole outside and extended down-stay with attention in the kitchen as an exercise. Sat a bit of hot dog on the counter to up the stakes when he couldn't seem to understand that he needed to STAY THERE until I released him and that improved his compliance considerably. I am also integrating flat collar corrections in the household on the drag line to clean up his household manners for things that he KNOOOOOWS are not allowed. *ninja mask on*

I was recently gifted a DVD by Ed and Bernhard Flinks, "Buiding Drive and Focus". It is an excellent video, but I realize that my drive-building work leaves a lot to be desired. Though I often feel tired and overwhelmed with household chores when I get home from work, I am trying to make a point of doing some drive-building with Sadie every evening. I don't always feel up to it, but have managed to get it in for the past few days consecutively.

She is responding well. Her desire to play is growing by the day, and she will commit to longer sessions with more intensity than in the past (note: I also suspect that the bitework has become gratifying for her, and that is bringing out more prey drive, as well). The downside is that, the more exhausted I get, the more she wants to play. What a problem to have.

Duane - LOL! Talk about a double-edged sword!

Sam did great in practice Tuesday night. I was very thankful when a more experienced member, whose handling style I very much admire, came over and worked with us and gave me lots of pointers and ideas as well as some encouragement! We worked on focus, with him showing me some ways to help Sam become more focused on my eyes rather than my hands, knowing when to correct when he blows off a command or is not giving me focus, and on recalls, which he did great at, coming at me with such enthusiasm I definitely had to brace myself! We're also starting to work more on focused heeling.

In protection, he did better, but is showing a bias for his favorite tug. I'm thinking of getting a jute tug or bite pillow and switching to that in our play at home to help with that. He still gets the puppy brain now and then, stopping to smell the grass or flop on his back in the middle of working with the helper, but at 6 months, no one seems too worried as long as he keeps going back to it.

He was feeling a bit off yesterday, with some loose poops and generally seemed tired, so we did a relaxing walk with some basic commands. He's back to being more like his old self today, so I'm planning a longer training and exercise session today.

Third week at K9 Nose Work with Trooper. He's doing great and not to modestly he's probably the best in the class.
I may get shot down for this but most pet people seem...aaaah.....clueless when it comes to their dogs. They all want their dogs to meet and greet even after the instructor said it's a big no in the class. I simply tell them I don't like dogs in my dog's face.
Most all of them seem like nice folks but....DAMN!

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BUMP!

This weekend, started working on holding an object (skinny marker) nicely as per Ram's video Duke did not get this. He spit it out immediately. I have started throwing parties for a. holding it all the way back in his molars and b. holding it for longer than a pico second. And I did get him to pick it up off the floor for me after he dropped it once. Patience patience patience with him, if it doesn't move or need to be bitten he's not the most interested in it, so I'll be working on this FIRST.

Next, moved from him standing on then sitting in the kitchen chair to sitting in the kitchen chair with his front paws on my shoulders and a piece of hot dog balanced on his nose. A+ for that one.

Did a little bit of refresher on our other commands, then to the back yard for the best (most consistent)game of fetch ever. He only dropped the ball coming back to me once and brought it over when I asked him to. Every other ball landed in my (slimy) hand. Good boy.

Sam did awesome in tracking over the weekend. We added our first turn to his tracks and he followed it without missing a beat! I was SO proud! We did have a funny/exasperating moment when I was attaching his leashes (we're doing 2 leashes right now to straighten out his rear in the track) and he got loose from me unleashed. Well, of all the things he COULD have done or gotten into, he went straight to his track and started tracking...without me! The other club members and I had a pretty good laugh over it after I got him leashed and started him over on the track.

I am working on a release when we're done tracking, but no toy seems to be as rewarding to him as trying to continue to track. Another member suggested I just pull him off the track and give him lots of praise and pets until I can entice him to play so that he can start learning that when it's done, it's done.

Tonight is scheduled for obedience and protection practice, but we have a storm rolling in, so I'm not sure if we'll be on the field or not. I am also starting to wonder about protection for Sam. It takes a LOT of work to keep him interested in tug and he still shows anxiety. I think I'm going to talk it over with the more experienced members soon.

Last night we had obedience practice and had to skip protection...because a bull moose decided our practice field was his. We don't argue with moose up here, particularly a bull moose during the rut, so we all packed it up! LOL!

I worked with one of the more experienced handlers with Sam most of the evening, which was really helpful. We worked on several things including recalls, a little informal heeling, and focus and he gave me some great pointers as to what I was doing right and where I could improve.

We also talked a bit about Sam's temperment in general and his idea is that I'm expecting a bit too much from a puppy his age and a trainer with my experience and that I just need to work on socialization a lot more and a lot of this will work itself out as he matures and becomes more confident. That was really good to hear! He gave me some great ideas of places to work on it and how to handle when Sam does start doing things like barking at strangers or acting nervous around other dogs.

SO...this week, we are going to go visit the airport and walk around and hang out in the lobby area and just outside. We're going to go up and down escalators, around noisy kids and rolling luggage and just work on basic focus in all the chaos.

Tonight, though, I'm taking Sam to Cub Scouts. I really cannot imagine a more chaotic environment than an entire pack of young boys running around.

We'll help supervise the playground and work on focus as well as greeting people/kids without jumping while dh and son work on the next badge.