Sitting Down On The Job

100 days to go...

Holy crap where did the 56 days since I started this blog go??!!! Scary. So much to do, so much LESS time to do it in!!

This week I made a real effort to get in two or three 2x2 sessions a day. Most days I managed it, but once you try to add in any other training (or really any other part of your life whatsoever...!) that free time disappears all too quickly.

Fyre's entries have improved so much - I am glad I went back to just the one set of 2x2s to really work the entries with him - he is now getting some truly awesome entries, especially on the right side which was always harder for him, he can now usually hit it from a distance and an extreme angle where he has to U-turn around the pole to get the entry. Just a couple more sessions and I will be adding back in the second set. Josh on the other hand I have taken a step back and put more distance between the two sets, as I felt he was skipping the entry too often to go straight to the second set and therefore we re-started training by reinforcing the correct entries in between the 2 sets. His entries are improving again now.

Also during the week we did various other things - Josh and I went to the park a few times and he practiced settling down and relaxing in a different environment. We did some massage and I marked him for showing signs of relaxation like soft eyes, floppy ears etc. We also did some more recall work, building value for recalls, and I allowed him more room to move using the longer line. He has definitely improved - occasionally he just can't tear himself away from a smell and then we work through that as discussed in my previous post so he can be successful. I should mention that I'm also rewarding him for voluntarily returning to me, and consequently he is now a lot more aware of where I am and to not stray too far from me. This week we may go to a new park with different distractions and work through it all again, then maybe somewhere with a higher level of distraction. I am taking it a step at a time because I really want an excellent recall. You never know when you might want your dog to drop what he's doing and race back to you (my question for whether I should let him off lead yet or not is 'If he chased another dog towards the street with oncoming traffic, could you call him back?' If the answer to that is no, he needs to stay on lead.)

Today I decided we were spending too much time on weaving and needed to bring a lot more stuff into the training program (especially with just 100 days to go!) So today we did several short sessions.

Firstly we started nose touch to a clear plastic target (the small round lid off a container for anyone that's interested). All the dogs are quite willing to offer nose touches to my hand, so after a few regular nose touches I held the target in my hand and let them hit that instead. They all did pretty well, though it is so hard to time the click correctly - they all offered several variations of the nose touch behavious including licking, grabbing at the target with their mouths, hitting it open mouthed, hitting it with their chin; I need to practice, practice, practice getting my timing right so I reinforce the correct behaviour.

Next time we started some box work, in preparation for their scramble training (as per Rachel Sanders' DVD). Because this is all basic foundation stuff, no jumping or high impact work, Billie can do all of it too. I parked my chair facing the edge of the box and clicked the dogs when they got all four feet inside. They all caught onto this very quickly. I threw most of the treats outside of the box to move them out of it so they could go back in again, and to get them started thinking about the process of moving across in front of me. Sitting down also meant I was less likely to inadvertently coerce them into the box with body movement. We also did a few more nose touches this session.

Third session for the day, wanting to do some jump work but not having my plastic pipes cut up for speed bumps yet, I started thinking about the box work session and realised I could do the same thing with a bar jump. So I set up a cross bar i.e. two bars that crossed in the middle with one end in the lowest jump cup on one side and the other on the ground against the other upright. This made a very low point on the middle so they really didn't need to jump and we could simply work on bulding value for going over the bars. I set myself at one side of the jump facing the upright. I found it endlessly amusing watching all the behaviours they offered. The most common one was to walk all the way around the far upright and come back (since Josh and Fyre have been doing the 2x2 work I guess they were trying a similar thing here, but interestingly Billie did this too and she hasn't done any 2x2 yet). They also offered sits, downs, attempted hand touches (though I kept my hands in my lap out of the way) and various other random things. Eventually though all of them stepped over the bars. Once they did I clicked and threw food forward to keep them moving across and to get them away from the bar so they could turn back for another go. At this stage there was no handling involved - they could go over the bars from any direction and at any angle regardless of me. They all caught on very quickly, and Josh and Fyre were soon moving quite quickly across the cross bar, to the point where they were starting to do a little jump. I swapped sides with my chair and did it all again, then progressed to standing up, and then began to bring in some handling. This was at the point where I was reasonably sure they would go over the cross bar.

It was very basic stuff - me beginning to the show them the picture they would see if we were really handling this jump, i.e. as I threw the food for one reward I turned into the jump staying on the spot alongside it (basically a front cross) so my shoulders were now facing the direction we were 'going' as the dog turned back around again. Because they were beginning to see the value in the jump they automatically returned and went over it. I increased my distance from the upright, and then began to add a small amount of handler motion, i.e. as I threw the food I moved forward with the dog at a walk, as they turned back I turned in to them (front cross) and walked back towards the cross bar again. Both Josh and Fyre were able to do this with 100% success rate so I think I am progressing at the right speed here. In fact, they became more enthusiastic about the jump and with me moving actually began to jump over it. Billie reached the point where she was going back and forth across it but I didn't feel she was ready to do any 'handling' so we stopped at that point. I can see where this will be useful for lots of basic stuff. Josh for example had trouble going over a bar after being left in a wait (back some time ago when we did just a little jump work). I expect once I work through these exercises with him a bit more I will then be able to practice releasing him from a wait over the bar and have him be successful. Having worked through this with the dogs today I think the jump stuff I was doing with them previously was really expecting too much of them to start with, and this foundation stuff, plus the speed bumps when I eventually get them ready to go, will improve them much more quickly.

So generally happy with how we went today. Hopefully with several new things to teach now on the go I will begin to see some real progress.