What's your training goal this week?

[dogs4life]

I have a couple things we are working on:

1. I want Hank to jump over a wider variety of objects. He will jump over my legs, shoes, golf clubs, drumsticks and newspapers but he won't jump over strange objects like hangers, Samantha's legs and Samantha's toys, so we working on that.

2. Blind recall (don't know if that's the "correct" term but it's what I'm calling it) - he has a good recall when he can see you, but not so hot when he cannot see you. SO Sam and I are hiding in various areas of the house calling him, Sam thinks it's a real hoot and Hank is enjoying the running, searching for us and of course the treats for a good recall.

Well that's on my agenda this week - what are you working on this week?

[GSD]

I have to go back and work on "sit" with my older girl. I almost blew a gasket today at lunch. I go home every day and do some training, play and potty breaks (the perk of working for myself I get 2 hour lunches). Well we have a trial coming up in June so I've been doing some more "formal" ob during playtime.

For some reason today our motion exercises were like we never did them before. Platz in motion, beautiful, stand in motion beautiful, sit in motion.... well that was a stand, over and over again it was a stand. And I use "sit" for sit, and "daboo" for stand. they sound nothing alike, and she didn't look confused or like she was saying I don't want to do it.

She looked like she was doing what she was supposed to do. It went from being great to terrible in 2 days. I guess I'll back up a bit because those need to be clear. I don't want to happen again this trial what happened before. Here's a link, remember this was supposed to be a "down" in motion with recall.

schH I (down) in motion

Anyway, in addition to reworking the motion exercises, i've been tracking both my dogs every day. The older one is a tracking fool. I took her out for the first time since last fall and she hit every corner perfectly and every article. I need to work on keeping her downed at the article longer. Her drive to get up and track again is enromous, I don't want to kill that, but I do need to keep her there longer till I give the command to start again. Also I need to slow her down just a touch, but with a few more tracks to get her back in the grove that should clear out on its own.

The younger one is just starting tracking. I did imprinting as a puppy, and now we're starting scent pads and straight tracks footstep to footstep, i'll be doing that for quite some time

That's the agenda for this week, in addition to bitework on wed, thur and sunday

[Ritz459]

I'm hoping to touch up on Chloe's stays and downs, as those have gotten a bit rusty. Once school lets out next week we're going to be going full throttle on our invisible fence training, as well as obedience training (stand, heel, etc.). I'm also hoping to take her in to town more often to work with her around other dogs, as she is becoming dog reactive.

But for this week, we are mainly working on "Don't bark like a lunitic when mom comes home after school". She's out in her kennel during the day and when I get home I walk over to the run to let her out for a potty break before she is put out on her long chain in the yard for some exploration time.
When she sees me get out of the car she just barks and barks and barks and barks and barks and won't shut up until the leash is on her and she is out of the kennel. We're going to fix that.
We did our first training session today. She barked, I turned around. When she stopped, I'd face her and move towards the kennel. We did this for a while until I got up to the kennel door. Then she started barking again. Same thing. (I also wanted her to sit politely as I opened the kennel door and put her leash on, so that was another criteria added when I reached the door.) After about 30-60 seconds of barking she stopped and I turned around and there she is, sitting down, looking at me like, "Okay...oookkayyy....I'm being good....". She'll get it in a couple of days.

[Rivsky]

What a great idea for a thread

I have a variety of things that I'm working on with River - mainly so he doesn't get bored doing the same thing over and over again.

Obedience:

1. I'm working on getting him to drop on a smaller signal and also on voice only. Is coming along well at the moment - he started off thinking a smaller signal means a smaller drop. Last night we were hitting our drops perfectly but forgot how to stand so will be working on that too. Also been working away at a change of positions (where he has to drop from a stand with me in front of him).

2. For me I'm concentrating on making my steps a lot smaller in general heelwork and particularly on turns and figure 8s so I'm not leaving him behind.

3. Scent discrimination. We've recently started working on this so we've got something a little more interesting to work on. Done 3 sessions so far and he still doesn't "get" it but he wasn't randomly grabbing articles last time which was great, he looked like he was thinking it through a little more.

Agility:

1. Weaving. We had 2 weeks off and I was slack and didn't get the weave poles out at all so we went to class last Thursday and he's forgotten his entries. Haven't done anything on this since Sunday but will see how we go tomorrow night. Also want to get his speed up which we managed to do last week with a different command.

[SpringerLover]

Buzz is weaving... and heeling, and stays. I've only been home since Wednesday but I'm hoping to get some good heel work in the next few days. Right now he's weaving 6 poles twice for breakfast and dinner most nights. Today we just did breakfast to give him a little break. LOTS of stay practice. He's usually good at stay anyways but down is far better than sit.

Bailey is tracking, and loving it! We have our second lesson tomorrow night. Having just a few slight issues so I hope we get some tips for working on those. Also working on a foot target with her to start utility go-outs. Heeling with her as usual too. Sure wish we could do more, but can't until our next appointment (or even later).

[dogs4life]

I just love hearing what you all are working on, plus it gives me great ideas for what's next with Hank. Probably not bitework, LOL.

[GSD]

i've seen SchH III bitework from a corgi and JRT, I wouldn't underestimate any dog. Give it a shot

[dogs4life]

Originally Posted by GSD

i've seen SchH III bitework from a corgi and JRT, I wouldn't underestimate any dog. Give it a shot

Do they make ankle sleeves

[GSD]

who needs an ankle sleeve, check this guy out. He passed last year I think, that's why they put the video on the internet, lots of people knew these people and this dog, they are/were all well liked.

It's a great little video of a demonstration they did a while ago at a big schutzhund event.

YouTube - Claudia Romard & Mr. Murphy

[dogs4life]

OMG - that was amazing and too funny. He sure loved to bite, like little jumping crocodile.

I'd love to see some Chihuahuas or Toy breeds trying it, I'm sure some of them would totally enjoy it all.

My little guy is smaller than your cats, that's why I asked about leg armor. Right now he can reach my knees, maybe after his knee surgery he will jump higher, he's got severe Luxating patella.

[dogs4life]

Anyone else training this week?

[SpringerLover]

I usually keep my blog updated... far more than I read message boards but...

Tracking still... had a huge success last night. Bailey nailed her first corner! WOOT! Couldn't quite replicate it today but I think the first leg was too long without reinforcement yet.

[rutylr]

All I as is my dog is happy working with me.
I have my first Rally trial Sunday.I hope we are ready,but if we DQ and she had fun then all is not lost.We will just try again.

[Rivsky]

Originally Posted by rutylr

All I as is my dog is happy working with me.
I have my first Rally trial Sunday.I hope we are ready,but if we DQ and she had fun then all is not lost.We will just try again.

Best of luck rutylr - you are so right having fun is the most important thing!!

Little River has been having a blinder of a week.

He's been doing a brilliant job with his drops so fingers crossed we've got over that hurdle but we'll keep working on it. He even managed to do his change of positions at training on Wednesday which I was so excited about!! And there was zero confusion between drops and stands thankfully as well.

He also did his first ever dumbbell retrieve over a solid jump and did a great job. Will have to keep working on getting him to hold his sit after I take the dumbbell though.

He also seems to have remembered how to weave At agility we had to to set our dogs up at one end of 6 poles and us go to the other and see if they could get their entries right and how many of the poles they'd actually complete. While he didn't do the full set he did get his entry right and managed to do half of them which was brilliant - first time he's ever done any weaving without me running along the side next to him.

So our goal for this week now is to work on getting him to weave without me being alongside of him.

[Jamila]

My goal this week is simple compared to everyone else's. I'm teaching my three "down". It's weird because Lucky has alway automatically done down before I feed him, but he wont do it on command. Fallon caught super quick. Talena hasn't got it yet, but she's smart and I know as long as we are consistent it will catch on.

I was thinking about whistle training them for recall. They have absolutely no recall at the moment and that needs to change.

Happy Training everyone