Monday I had another training session with my new coach. She brought a newer method to work on Quinn's issues. B.A.T. --Behavioral Adjustment Training, written about by Grisha Stewart a trainer out of Seattle.
My trainer brought her 13 year old Aussie bitch to use as a 'decoy' dog. Basically, Quinn and I would move closer to her (while she was in a down-stay), when he noticed her, I stopped. As soon as he looked away, I marked the behavior and ran back to the 'starting point'. We did it several times and she moved her Aussie to a couple of new locations, overall I really like how it's progressing.
I've always felt that using food with Quinn added a bit of guarding behavior. I don't know if that's just my fear or if it's reality, but I like this method because you don't start off using food. It makes him work to control himself to earn the ability to move away from the decoy, instead of working for food where he might easily eat the food then explode on the decoy anyway.
Tuesday, I had a friend bring her Corgi and she did a sit-stay and a down-stay with her dog while Quinn and I worked. We've trained in the same ring before, so Quinn's familiar with her dog. He had no reactivity at all.
Tonight, I took him back to the training building and another trainer was there with her Golden. I asked if she'd do a Down-Stay with him, while I worked with Quinn. He did pretty well. He did react once (I moved too close, too fast). I didn't want to inconvenience the other trainer too much, so after several minutes, I put Quinn back into the car. I was pleased that he didn't seem stressed when I took him back to the car.
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