I haven't posted in a while. At the beginning of April I decided to enter Quinn in the Rally trial in Seward, NE. Since then, I've been hard at work on heeling with Quinn. I discovered I had not taught him the go around finish and we needed to practice on that.
Yesterday was Quinn's first time ever in an obedience (Rally) competition. When I saw the map, I realized he would do okay on most of the exercises, but there was a finish right (oh, no!)
So I bought some liver bait--I had forgotten my freshly prepared chicken livers at home and we went to the parking lot to practice a few more times the dreaded 'go-round' finish.
My other big concern with Quinn is he's still somewhat reactive around other dogs. Mostly he barks and acts a fool around dogs that are out of control in his opinion. So using some of the liver bait, I lured him into the building and he did very well ignoring the other dogs and focusing on me. The worst part was there were a lot of Novice A people/dogs around and they did not seem to have their dogs under control at all. I had two people allow there dogs to just wander up to me and Quinn.
Just an FYI for all the Novice A people out there. Even if your dog is nice, not every one else will have a dog that likes to have other dogs in their faces.
We finally got into the ring and went through the exercises pretty quickly. I was happy with his performance. I knew we'd made a few mistakes, but he stayed focused and happy. I was even happier to discover we'd earned a 98 and second place. Alicia said we'd actually taking only 52 seconds to complete the course.
His two mistakes were, 1 point for 'interference' --which means he bumped me or I bumped him. And at one point, for one point, he got out of heel position. I took him outside during Novice A and we missed going in for our ribbons, I was a little disappointed with that.
But for a debut, I was very very pleased.
Today was better on the performance, not as good with overall control in the building. He growled and barked once outside the ring and I had to tell someone quite forcefully to keep their dog away from me and mine.
In the ring he was great! He focused on me and stayed in very good heel position most of the time. The very first sign was a sit and he sat wide. I don't know if I lost his attention or if I didn't give him the correct sit signal. Either way I need to practice that.
That was pretty much the only thing he did wrong. We were one of four teams to earn a 99. I was thrilled to learn we were the fastest team with 50 seconds. Not only did we get a very pretty blue ribbon, but a first place trophy as well. Overall, I don't really care about the placements, but I can't help but be happy when it happens.
The only downer was when we went in to get our ribbons Quinn was really conscious of the other dogs and had a lot of difficulty not lunging after any of them. I kept my hands on him and talked to him and moved him away several times. I also need to work on having people applaud--he did not like that either.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Door Training!
Today I did some training with my dogs and a guest dog. I spent time teaching my dogs not to run out the door without permission.
I learned this technique from a very good trainer and friend, Shirley Chong.
The premise is you let the dog dash outside, (onlead) give them enough room to stand and think about what's happening, but not have any fun. Let them back in and tell them what a horrible experience they just had. If they control themselves, you Click and Treat them for hesitating, for sitting and for looking at you.
I did a refresher on Danny and started with 15 seconds, then doubled it to 30, then 1 minute. He then figured it out and didn't dash out the door. He's done this before, but I know he's had some chances to practice bad behavior in the recent past.
Missy was next, I've been somewhat afraid of trying this, she chews on leashes and I was concerned she might escape. I used a very thick nylon lead that belonged to my first dog, a GSD.
She didn't take long (just a minute) before she was sitting and waiting at the door.
Quinn was last, he took the longest at 2 minutes. I think being outside without me wasn't pleasant, he did whine and bark a few times, but he just couldn't resist dashing out that open door. Tomorrow we'll try the front door and then Tuesday go back to the side door.
I learned this technique from a very good trainer and friend, Shirley Chong.
The premise is you let the dog dash outside, (onlead) give them enough room to stand and think about what's happening, but not have any fun. Let them back in and tell them what a horrible experience they just had. If they control themselves, you Click and Treat them for hesitating, for sitting and for looking at you.
I did a refresher on Danny and started with 15 seconds, then doubled it to 30, then 1 minute. He then figured it out and didn't dash out the door. He's done this before, but I know he's had some chances to practice bad behavior in the recent past.
Missy was next, I've been somewhat afraid of trying this, she chews on leashes and I was concerned she might escape. I used a very thick nylon lead that belonged to my first dog, a GSD.
She didn't take long (just a minute) before she was sitting and waiting at the door.
Quinn was last, he took the longest at 2 minutes. I think being outside without me wasn't pleasant, he did whine and bark a few times, but he just couldn't resist dashing out that open door. Tomorrow we'll try the front door and then Tuesday go back to the side door.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Training at home
I went to class last week, but this week I missed. I've been working with Quinn on stays, in particular distance rather than time. I also have worked a little on teaching him to move his butt to the left (his left). He has a nice move to the right, he'll move laterally with me, but he has a tendency to move too far to the right and has difficulty moving to the left. So we'll do that twice as much.
Missy is my demo dog for the new Intermediate class, I told the students that she needs the class as much, if not more than their dogs! In that class we're really focusing on distraction proofing and teaching the dogs to focus on the owner. Two of the dogs really don't seem to care if their owners are around. So we'll do a lot of recalls and work on responsible heeling.
Missy is my demo dog for the new Intermediate class, I told the students that she needs the class as much, if not more than their dogs! In that class we're really focusing on distraction proofing and teaching the dogs to focus on the owner. Two of the dogs really don't seem to care if their owners are around. So we'll do a lot of recalls and work on responsible heeling.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
April Fool's Stay
I haven't posted recently, but I have been training.
At my last Novice Ready class, Quinn was still having a very difficult time holding his stay. He'd be able to last until I was 22' away then he usually broke and came to me.
So I wondered why 9 paces was the magic number? It seems my usual training area (my dining room and living room) only allows me to get about 22 feet away from him. So today I put him in the kitchen and walked to the other end of my house. He only broke once. I kept returning to him and feeding him. I didn't do any recalls, because I really need to get the stay/wait part solid before I add anything else.
Danny got sucked into the stay vortex and ended up doing stays with Quinn. Missy just ran around behind me. I realize I should have had her do stays also (hers are worse than the boys). But I'm recovering from a cold and didn't have the energy to deal with her today.
I read my most recent Front and Finish and there was an article on a different method to teach scent discrimination. I've always had difficulty teaching this exercise, because my dogs love to retrieve and really don't care too much about the scenting part. It uses Altoid tins, so now I need to go out and get 5 tins.
On March 24, I layed a track for Danny as soon as I got off work. It had just one turn, it was about 50 yards down the side of the parking lot in front of my workplace then a turn about 5 yards and then the glove. Danny's not always solid on turns, he does fringe, so I wanted some age on the track.
I went home changed clothes and went back. Danny started out great, unfortunately the area I started the track had stickers, so he kept having to stop so I could remove them (or he could chew them out). After we got through the bad stuff, he did very well. When we came to the corner, he barely casted around, almost immediately took the corner. He was doing great.
At my last Novice Ready class, Quinn was still having a very difficult time holding his stay. He'd be able to last until I was 22' away then he usually broke and came to me.
So I wondered why 9 paces was the magic number? It seems my usual training area (my dining room and living room) only allows me to get about 22 feet away from him. So today I put him in the kitchen and walked to the other end of my house. He only broke once. I kept returning to him and feeding him. I didn't do any recalls, because I really need to get the stay/wait part solid before I add anything else.
Danny got sucked into the stay vortex and ended up doing stays with Quinn. Missy just ran around behind me. I realize I should have had her do stays also (hers are worse than the boys). But I'm recovering from a cold and didn't have the energy to deal with her today.
I read my most recent Front and Finish and there was an article on a different method to teach scent discrimination. I've always had difficulty teaching this exercise, because my dogs love to retrieve and really don't care too much about the scenting part. It uses Altoid tins, so now I need to go out and get 5 tins.
On March 24, I layed a track for Danny as soon as I got off work. It had just one turn, it was about 50 yards down the side of the parking lot in front of my workplace then a turn about 5 yards and then the glove. Danny's not always solid on turns, he does fringe, so I wanted some age on the track.
I went home changed clothes and went back. Danny started out great, unfortunately the area I started the track had stickers, so he kept having to stop so I could remove them (or he could chew them out). After we got through the bad stuff, he did very well. When we came to the corner, he barely casted around, almost immediately took the corner. He was doing great.
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