Ooooooo down to double digits! *shivers* This is to be a very quick entry so I can actually get to bed before midnight (!!) So, first point of interest I will be auditing the first four days of the Lynda Orton-Hill seminars in Victoria come February and CAN'T WAIT!!!! I expect this will be VERY helpful to all the training I am doing currently.
What we covered tonight (cos who needs a life outside of dogs anyway?):
2x2 weavers: Josh did one session, responding very well to the loud squeaky toy. Fyre did three sessions, I have added the second set of 2x2s about 3m or so from the first and currently back to easier entries and lots of reinforcement for correct entries.
Cones: Introduced a second cone, in anticipation of teaching them to go round one cone then the next. Cones right next to each other for this early stage then will start moving them out. All three dogs have one particular side they did better at, and at various points went between the cones, jumped over the cones and so on, but all were starting to cotton on! Probably need to get them more confident with just single cones though.
Nose touches: Just a very quick few minutes each, me trying to get my timing right so they hit the target with their nose and nothing else.
Box work: All did excellent at this, almost right off getting into the box and worked out almost straight away to move all four feet inside.
Jump work: Cross bar again, me in the chair, Josh and Fyre are both offering actually jumps over the bars now so I am very pleased. Billie still just stepping over but getting more confident.
Josh and I also walked to a different nearby park and had a couple of sessions of settling and relaxing, lots of recall work on the long line, and various little exercises in between, i.e. leaving him in a sit and rewarding staying there then calling him to me. Several dogs were around during this time so we did 'Who's That?' and although he is still too tense and excited watching other dogs, he isn't trying to bolt after them - he will stay in a down next to me and watch them and 'quiver'! I was very pleased though with one situation where I saw a large dog off lead heading towards us, I quickly put him in a down and even though he stood up when it came and stood right over him, as soon as it moved off I was able to tell him to get back into a down and he responded, then we did 'Who's That?' and I was thrilled when, even though still very excited, he offered a paw touch in between looking at the retreating dog. A real sign of progress I think.
As for the title, that's to let all of you out there know that it is NOT a good idea to begin one's agility training with a deadline of 156 days because it goes WAY too quickly, especially with multiple dogs, and unless you can drop everything for six months it's a LOT of work and stress (stress for me, not for the dogs - far as they're concerned they're beng showered with toys and food and fun things to do so they're loving it
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