It's Been A While

It's been a while since I posted.
It's been a while since I trained the levels.
It's just been a while...

However, Jackson has made it through Puppy Basic Manners 1, Puppy Basic Manners 2, and is almost finished with Performance Puppy Class. He, also, did Puppy Socialization classes and those went very well. It turns out he is the youngest in his 'group'. His 'group' is the same puppies that he started out with in puppy basic manners 1. These are the great pups and owners we got to know during puppy socialization. I'm positive this has made ALL the difference for him.

This weekend, he's even going to be competing in his very first APDT Rally Trial. Not only is it his first trial, it's my first trial also. This should prove to be VERY interesting. I can only hope I manage to keep it fun and don't let my competitive side take over.

In the past four months, I've also managed to work through a lot of Brianna's food issues. She's eating her meals much better now. She's also progressed in how often she'll take a treat in public. I'm still working on building toy drive in her. I feel that would be a great help during classes and such. Though as it stands now, she's regressed when she has to do anything during training class. It might have something to do with the fact that her class is after Jackson's. So she's already spent an hour in the crate, whining during class. Yes I know, we're working on her crate training some more.

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Jackson

 

  

Jackson was born 12/02/09. He came home with us at nearly 12 weeks of age just this past Sunday. He's settling in so nicely with everyone. He's slowly learning to be comfortable in his crate for naps during the day. Nighttime was a WHOLE other story! Thankfully, I thought to raise his crate higher and put it right next to the bed, that made him settle down and be willing to sleep. 

He's a very vocal pup which we hope will prove to be lots of fun later. He's a sweet, 12.5 lb fluffy bundle of play!

 

Blah

So a month goes between postings.. I said this wasn't going to be easy and I was right. It doesn't help we've been so busy with snow that everything else seems to have just fallen by the wayside.

I did finally manage to get some good pictures of the girls in the snow!

 

Astra no longer seems the feel the camera is going to steal her soul!

 

I love how she manages to just walk across the top of the snow.

 

I didn't notice until later how this looked like they were conspiring against me.

I haven't really done any major training with them lately. They're not interested, I'm not interested... It's the weather I'm sure. I don't count our standard at-home stuff as really training anyway. 

I've gotten some really great suggestions on how to work through some of their 'issues' which I have been trying.

Confusion abounds...

So, Kali and Tina had training class last night. Since last week, Tina seemed so skittish, we decided to trade off. I would work Tina and DH would work Kali. DH has actually worked Kali before, I was sick and couldn't make it to class, so he took her. I haven't worked Tina in a classroom setting in a long while.

Well, that was a disaster. Thankfully we get there early. So the only disaster was their "warm-ups". Rick got a call from work, so he just had to answer it. (I have no clue why he walked into the class and he phone wasn't turned off. After 22 years, you just don't address some things anymore.) Well since he was distracted, Kali was free to go off on a barking-fest to the dogs that were near her, the dogs coming into class, the dogs moving around and practicing themselves.

Which in turn, of course, led Tina to not want to focus on me whatsoever. Since something cool had to be going on over there. Tina needs to work on her confidence in class. That's something thats going to take time. Whereas Kali needs to work on her reactiveness. I opted to take over with Kali. I read her better anyway.

"Alright", says the instructor, "Show me what you learned last week".

Left hand "touch" (nose to hand), right hand "touch". "Sit", "Down". Yea! We got this! You rock Kali!

"Stand" ... epic fail. Mind you, we practiced, ALOT. But imo, "stand" is one of those things that takes a while to 'pop' in a dog's mind. For Kali, it hasn't 'popped' yet. 

Instructor says.. "Use touch to lure them into a 'stand'" Alright, we can do that! BAM, she did it! "Touch" - YES! She did it again!! Now my hand signal for 'touch' is easy .. open hand, pointing downward, palm towards dog. Woohoo! We're touching and moving everywhere!

Alright.. it's time for 'front'. "Practice your 'front' for a while" Kali and I sit down. (Yea, I'll take any chance to sit my butt back down. Besides, Kali's been doing 'front' since she was a puppy. We got this!)

Let's do some work on 'look at that'.  I haven't put it on cue yet. But she knows when we're doing it. It's when I ignore her staring holes into my head. So, she looks away.. click and treat.

Kali gets excited.. you can see it, look away, wait for a click, look back at mom quickly to make sure.. ah geez.. ok, now's the strain.. look away and hope that's enough.. At least, that's how I read her. *click* YES, gimme my treat. That's Kali.

She managed to look around calmly (calmly as in, not barking and fussing at everyone else, yet still anxious for her click n treat) for an average of 5 seconds. We did this ALOT! I should've made note of the time we started.

Okay.. show me your 'front'. BAM! She got it!

Alright.. time for 'finish'. From the 'front', left finish and go behind for left finish.

'Finish' is easy.. though not pretty to look at, but Kali's a work in progress you know.

Now we work on the -from 'front', walk towards my right side, go behind me and end up in a pretty finish back on my left.

Uh- huh... suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure. Juggle clicker, treats and leash... lure your dog behind and around you... and get your feet moving in the right direction...

This just reminded me of how forgiving Brianna really is of me... AND how lucky I am that she catches on quick. (Forgiving because with her, this sequence did cause me to fall down and tangle her up a few times.)

Yea.. moving on.. doggy push-ups... rapid fire 'sit', 'down', 'stand'. I'm thinking, we got this! My bad.. again.. Kali waited for a treat for every position. Tina got it though! Wow, she was FAST and pretty too!

Alright.. let's work on 'stay'. 'finish' 'stay' walk forward.. EPIC FAIL! My hand signal for 'stay' is TOO similar to my hand signal for 'touch'. Kali happily trotted along next to me each time. Alright, I got it.. any open palm towards Kali is 'touch' to her. Now I gotta come up with a way for her realize watch the fingers to know what to do. It's my failing... not hers. I just won't change signals per dog.

Another point for Brianna, I'm sure I confused her too with this.

Another fun one.. 'stay' and walk around your dog. This past week, we practiced 'find my eyes' ALOT. So every time I moved, Kali swung her butt around to maintain eye contact. I was told Tina did too. *sigh*

Looks like I'm going to have polish my creativity to get all this right. Extra treats for my girls for putting up with all this eagerly!

Group Practice

Well, I really thought I had written and posted about this already. I guess I only did it in my head. Hence another good reason for keeping this blog... To keep track of what I actually have worked on and keep a record of what I want to work on.

It's been so cold here lately, the girls haven't had much outside exercise. We've been doing lots of playing in the house and mini training sessions. The only one I really felt worth mentioning (and keeping track of) was when we worked on their group stays.

Now, I wasn't sure how it was going to work. But since they already have a pretty much group sit (for cookies!). I decided to try a group stay. They all do a fairly well "front", with or without a lure. So, I practiced "front" and managed to line them up side by side. They held their stay for about a minute with me standing nearby. That was good I thought.

Then I decided to work on my being able to move about a bit. So, I lined them up and would do some jumping jacks and/or spins before releasing them. Unfortunately, the last dog was anticipating and getting up before being released. I'm not quite sure how to fix that. I might just need to cheat that a little and give a "group" release.

Getting back on track

Well, there hasn't been much to write about during their training sessions at home these past few days. I'm pretty sure my timing has been off. Either they're overexcited and can't focus OR they're too tired from running and playing to actually focus.

Kali and Tina went to training class last night. Most of the work was on getting your dog to actively seek your attention and 'touch'.

Touch was fun. My girls normally act as though luring is a trick to break a stay or a leave it or something like that... It should be fun to work with all four of them on 'moving touches'.

We worked some more on 'stand'. I have to admit, I'm really jealous of those with larger dogs. It looks so easy to teach larger dogs 'stand'. Then again, most little dogs get taught 'stand' on a table. I should try that.

I need to work more on Kali's reactiveness. I can't help but laugh at her though. She LLW with perfect attention, then turns her head, barks at the other dogs and turns right back to me with perfect attention, as though nothing happened. This time, it was a white, standard poodle that kept setting her off. (I want to keep track of these things just to see if there's any sort of pattern.)

Tina was off her game. I think her leg was still hurting her. She spent ALOT of time with her ears pinned back and moving very slowly. I'm not sure what I can practice with her that doesn't involve her moving around much...