First lesson of the year
So I headed off to Maggie's with the temperature already dropping and I knew her house would be colder than mine, knowing we would be a couple hours in the great outdoors. I was bundled up, layers of clothes, big jackets, and knit cap, the only thing lacking was gloves as I knew I couldn't use treats while wearing them. Chauncey and Blueberry were the victims for this lesson and they were bundle up in their jackets with warm pads in their crates. Thankfully, there was not much wind so the cold wasn't blowing through us.
As this was our first lesson beck with Maggie after several months off from her and training in group classes at ODTC, we did some review before working on specific issues. We started off with Chauncey, reviewing our heel work and figure 8 movements. She did very well for having almost 6 weeks off because she had re-injured her neck. I then discussed the problem I was having with Chauncey on her recalls, as she was coming in to me her speed would gradually slow down and then she was sitting too far our in front of me. I noticed this had slowly developed the further I went with Chauncey's drop on recall training. Putting my hand on her collar to move her closer just resulted in Chauncey's applying all 4 brakes to come in closer. I explained what was going on to Maggie and we both know that Chauncey fights with new ideas unless we can break it down and let her think it is her idea and very fun. Maggie had me do a couple recalls with no formal fronts just to see how Chauncey responded.
Of course, Chauncey runs right in and sits much closer than what she does at home, but she is not sitting straight in front, more crooked and I move to get her to adjust. Maggie then instructed me to sit in a chair, with my legs slightly spread to form a "frame" for her to come into. I called her and she came into my legs, but sat farther back than we want, so I clicked and treated for the fast come and then tapped my chest while leaning back in the chair to encourage her to move forward. Again once Chauncey moved forward and closer to my body I clicked and rewarded. Maggie explained that the idea was to stop me from moving my body to adjust Chauncey's position and to teach her to find the correct spot on her own. So much of this is done because I can't adjust my position in the ring and I tend to get insecure and not let the dog figure out and learn on their own. We then moved to her retrieve work, which she did readily and with happiness. Again I am going to be using the chair work for this part as well because fronts with the dumbbell need more work.
Chauncey's training goals for this week:
1-Work on fronts with chair for recalls and retrieves
2-Start jumping with the Linda Mecklenberg method, but not the full jump height on the bar jump and alternate with the broad jump (only 2 boards) to gradually rebuild her jumping muscles.
3-Alternate heel work and jump work to give her some rest periods.
4-Do some retrieve work every day.
Blueberry's lesson took a turn in the middle. She did well on her heeling pattern and figure 8 and is really working well on maintaining her own position. I am still working with food held on her nose to keep her attention on me. Now I need to gradually move my hand up a couple inches then drop to feed her, until I can keep my hand at shoulder height and not lose attention. She did this good with only losing her focus for a couple short strides. We then worked on some stand for exams. Blueberry is understanding the command and we do this in a front box. I need to remember to bring my hand down directly in front of her nose, like a karate chop, and not let her move the front legs forward. It needs to be a pop-up stand with her popping her rear end up and rear legs out behind her.
From there we moved to working on Blueberry's recalls, she loves this part. Maggie started out by holding her leash as I left her in a sit as her stays are not solid at all when I leave her yet. I found out just how unreliable they truly are. As I left her she immediately stood up and strained at the leash to follow me. A little history on Blueberry, she is a mommy's baby and stresses when I leave for any distance when she is with a stranger, or we go to new places. She lacks a lot in the confidence area. So, instead of working on recalls our lesson changed to building confidence with me not beside her. Maggie held her leash so she couldn't get to me when she stood up and as soon as she sat I would click and walk in with a treat. This took quite a while for Blueberry to understand. She kept wanting to get up and turn towards Maggie as she was standing behind Blueberry. Because of her insecurity she then decided that in heel position by Maggie or I was where she would be in the "good" place. We kept working at it and finally got her to calm down and hold a sit with me moving out about 6 feet, waiting 10-15 seconds, clicking, and returning to reward. This will be fun to do at home without an assistant, so I will be using a fence post and door knob so she can't follow me and clicking and rewarding when she sits and holds it longer than 10 seconds. We are not using any verbal commands for this, just a clicker and reward. The idea will be to increase the distance from 6 feet by about 1 foot a week. Whew, always fun when the lesson plan changes.
Blueberry's training goals for this week:
1-Work every day on leaving her in a sit or rewarding the sit when I am at a distance.
2-Gradually raise my hand in our heel work.
3-Pop-up stands, keep her front feet stationary.
4-Start dumbbell work and keep working on her tug game.
Once the lesson was finished we blasted the heater in the truck all the way home.
As this was our first lesson beck with Maggie after several months off from her and training in group classes at ODTC, we did some review before working on specific issues. We started off with Chauncey, reviewing our heel work and figure 8 movements. She did very well for having almost 6 weeks off because she had re-injured her neck. I then discussed the problem I was having with Chauncey on her recalls, as she was coming in to me her speed would gradually slow down and then she was sitting too far our in front of me. I noticed this had slowly developed the further I went with Chauncey's drop on recall training. Putting my hand on her collar to move her closer just resulted in Chauncey's applying all 4 brakes to come in closer. I explained what was going on to Maggie and we both know that Chauncey fights with new ideas unless we can break it down and let her think it is her idea and very fun. Maggie had me do a couple recalls with no formal fronts just to see how Chauncey responded.
Of course, Chauncey runs right in and sits much closer than what she does at home, but she is not sitting straight in front, more crooked and I move to get her to adjust. Maggie then instructed me to sit in a chair, with my legs slightly spread to form a "frame" for her to come into. I called her and she came into my legs, but sat farther back than we want, so I clicked and treated for the fast come and then tapped my chest while leaning back in the chair to encourage her to move forward. Again once Chauncey moved forward and closer to my body I clicked and rewarded. Maggie explained that the idea was to stop me from moving my body to adjust Chauncey's position and to teach her to find the correct spot on her own. So much of this is done because I can't adjust my position in the ring and I tend to get insecure and not let the dog figure out and learn on their own. We then moved to her retrieve work, which she did readily and with happiness. Again I am going to be using the chair work for this part as well because fronts with the dumbbell need more work.
Chauncey's training goals for this week:
1-Work on fronts with chair for recalls and retrieves
2-Start jumping with the Linda Mecklenberg method, but not the full jump height on the bar jump and alternate with the broad jump (only 2 boards) to gradually rebuild her jumping muscles.
3-Alternate heel work and jump work to give her some rest periods.
4-Do some retrieve work every day.
Blueberry's lesson took a turn in the middle. She did well on her heeling pattern and figure 8 and is really working well on maintaining her own position. I am still working with food held on her nose to keep her attention on me. Now I need to gradually move my hand up a couple inches then drop to feed her, until I can keep my hand at shoulder height and not lose attention. She did this good with only losing her focus for a couple short strides. We then worked on some stand for exams. Blueberry is understanding the command and we do this in a front box. I need to remember to bring my hand down directly in front of her nose, like a karate chop, and not let her move the front legs forward. It needs to be a pop-up stand with her popping her rear end up and rear legs out behind her.
From there we moved to working on Blueberry's recalls, she loves this part. Maggie started out by holding her leash as I left her in a sit as her stays are not solid at all when I leave her yet. I found out just how unreliable they truly are. As I left her she immediately stood up and strained at the leash to follow me. A little history on Blueberry, she is a mommy's baby and stresses when I leave for any distance when she is with a stranger, or we go to new places. She lacks a lot in the confidence area. So, instead of working on recalls our lesson changed to building confidence with me not beside her. Maggie held her leash so she couldn't get to me when she stood up and as soon as she sat I would click and walk in with a treat. This took quite a while for Blueberry to understand. She kept wanting to get up and turn towards Maggie as she was standing behind Blueberry. Because of her insecurity she then decided that in heel position by Maggie or I was where she would be in the "good" place. We kept working at it and finally got her to calm down and hold a sit with me moving out about 6 feet, waiting 10-15 seconds, clicking, and returning to reward. This will be fun to do at home without an assistant, so I will be using a fence post and door knob so she can't follow me and clicking and rewarding when she sits and holds it longer than 10 seconds. We are not using any verbal commands for this, just a clicker and reward. The idea will be to increase the distance from 6 feet by about 1 foot a week. Whew, always fun when the lesson plan changes.
Blueberry's training goals for this week:
1-Work every day on leaving her in a sit or rewarding the sit when I am at a distance.
2-Gradually raise my hand in our heel work.
3-Pop-up stands, keep her front feet stationary.
4-Start dumbbell work and keep working on her tug game.
Once the lesson was finished we blasted the heater in the truck all the way home.
posted by Kim at 7:06 PM
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