Training good news/venting thread.

[Dizzy]

A thread dedicated to those snippets of information you want to share, that don't really warrant a whole thread of their own.



I'll start

Fred is doing very well! We're still seeing a trainer 121, and we have the basics down. He does down, come (to cue and whistle), sit, leave, heel (still working on this) etc. He knows to go to a mat and lie down, he does wait.

Last Saturday we took him into the field and got him tracking (some tripe, yum). He LOVED it. She said he was a bit 'track happy' and so we need to get him looking for an article rather than just sniffing a track

Next week we're pairing him with another puppy to see how they fare with distractions.

[SpringerLover]

Fred sounds like he's doing WONDERFULLY! What a good boy. And so cool you've got him doing so many new things already!

Bailey's been too busy trying to injure herself to actually do much training. I guess something super exciting for us though is that I can actually walk both dogs together and encounter a loose dog and still not want to kill them? They both did a nice job of forgetting about the loose dog after the owner called it away.

[meepitsmeagan]

Rider is coming along nicely. He is getting a pretty solid recall on him now and is getting better with manners all around. He can still be pretty stubborn, but it is a work in progress. Leash manners have improved tremendously and he is a complete joy to clicker train.

Harlow is being a Boxer Butt lately. Has to go outside on-leash only. She's being a ****face. So, she's living a lax NILIF life and doing obedience every other day... In addition to retraining her recall and proofing it. Fun. Mind you, we have to do this about once a year... Just because she is evil.

[Lyzelle]

Zander has formed this new, incredibly annoying and extremely painful habit of mugging my hand for treats. And I mean MUGGING. Full out sniping, pawing, pulling, biting...UGH. NO. My hands are so swollen and sore now.

All I was trying to do was lure his feet onto a book.

No idea why that translated into attacking my hand.

In other news, we shaped a nice Perch. Front feet DID get done. Back feet = kill my hand, apparently.

[Dizzy]

Just been trailing round the back garden with some tripe for Freddie to track He loves it, and is starting to pull well when he finds the scent.

Had another puppy in training yesterday, Fred did so well, and we let them have a play after (to practice recalls actually!!) and he got to be chased, and he LOVED it. Bodhi is a chasee, never a chaser!

I'm so excited to see how he turns out as an adult... I don't want to wish time away, but he's just handsome and smart and I love him sooooo much Need to book our next training session soon

[crazedACD]

Cool thread idea!

Originally Posted by Lyzelle

Zander has formed this new, incredibly annoying and extremely painful habit of mugging my hand for treats. And I mean MUGGING. Full out sniping, pawing, pulling, biting...UGH. NO. My hands are so swollen and sore now.

All I was trying to do was lure his feet onto a book.

No idea why that translated into attacking my hand.

In other news, we shaped a nice Perch. Front feet DID get done. Back feet = kill my hand, apparently.

I was just reading a blurb about how to curb this
http://louisesdogblog.wordpress.com/...pulse-control/

[Dogs6]

I took Aura out to her first busy place where I wasn't paying 100% attention to her (car boot sale) and she was fantastic. She tried to jump on everybody but horse people are brilliant and just walked on past her and those that wanted to pat her waited until she stood still.

She's very nervy/ guardy in the car and there was a lot of noise when we arrived but as soon as she came out she was fine. woohoo!!

[PWCorgi]

I love this thread!

And yay Fred!

As for us, the other night we had a friend and her dog over for dinner. The dog Frodo has always been fine with outside of our home, and has even tried to get her to play with him. Last time she brought the dog to our apartment Frodo had to be crated the whole night because he was being an a-hole to her, following her around and barking/correcting her whenever he had the chance.

The other night he was FANTASTIC! Not so much as a growl at her, and during dinner he sat about 3 feet away from her and didn't even throw a fit when she put her paws on my leg to beg for food.

[sassafras]

I'm often just really impressed with my dogs' ability to figure out what I want from them despite my faults and inconsistency in communicating clearly with them.

Now that I've actually entered a trial and rally is something more than just a fun way to spend some time, I needed to straighten out Squash's fronts and finishes. And after a bit of goofing around on his part (WHAT IF I SIT COMPLETELY SIDEWAYS IN FRONT OF YOU, HA HA! and HEY THIS USED TO BE GOOD ENOUGH GIVE ME MY CHICKEN PLS) he really caught on that yes, in fact, only the best ones are getting rewarded. <3 this dog.

[Southpaw]

Juno was not an embarrassment today.

There is a GSD in my neighborhood and his owners take him for a walk at pretty much the exact same time every day. Oftentimes, I am in the front yard playing with Juno at this time. Typically, I see him coming, I grab her collar (because she's off leash), and she proceeds to throw a territorial barking fit at him. Sometimes I throw her in the house so she can bark her head off in there and look less embarrassing.

For her anxiety, our vet wants us to do lots of practice with hand targets and making it the most awesome fun game ever. So, we've been doing lots of work with that the last few days.

Today, we are outside. The GSD starts coming by. I grab her collar, she focuses on the dog pretty intently. Her body tenses, she's ready to go. I humor myself & start asking for hand touches, to my surprise she complied! Once or twice she looked back at him and let out a wimpy "woof", but then she came right back to the game. It was simply amazing.

She was able to listen to me despite this gigantic distraction, and despite the fact that her barking at him is a hugely practiced/reinforced behavior. And I have high hopes for this hand targeting stuff. Yay!

(Lucy, on the other hand, was inside the house barking her fool head off!)