Obedience and Rally O training

[Sekah]

I had my first private with my new instructor last weekend and she gave me some good pointers for working through a few of Cohen's trouble spots. I was a bit overloaded with information and feel a bit overwhelmed though. And of course there's nothing like an outside perspective to point out problems that I'd not even really seen myself yet.

My favourite take-away from the lesson was how placement of reward was going to help my issue with Cohen lagging off the line. She had me have Cohen jump up to get her reward after a step or two of heeling. Almost immediately I'm seeing more enthusiasm and am quite happy with our progress. It's too soon to call anything solved, but I feel like I have a good idea of how to work through the issue. We've been doing lots of very brief sessions of fun heeling, and Cohen seems to be enjoying herself a lot.

We're going to be joining an Open Trial Prep class, despite us not quite being ready for it. The instructor seemed to really like Cohen, and I have high hopes for her going forward.

[Red.Apricot]

Originally Posted by monkeys23

Its looking really good! The little guy trying to get in on the cookies totally cracked me up too.

We've still been working on that, as well as going from heel to front and vice versa. Went back to using the platforms when working on that last in our lesson (me and Lily going through a few rally signs was hilarious!) and my homework is to graduate to working on it with her mat at home to slowly fade the target of the platform.

Working on a lot of the same with Scout but its a bit slower/different because of her quirks. She's doing really well at it though, her pivot is making a lot of progress!

Thank you! I'm pretty excited. This week we also learned the stop-right step-stop sign, and she picked that up pretty much instantly--I think she generalized the pivot behavior, since they're sort of similar. She'll also heel backwards for as long as I want her to, which is cool.

We need to work on sending Elsie away and calling her to front, too. I don't know why we're having trouble with that one, but we are, so I've started luring it again. Baby-steps.

And I'm just smitten with Zobby lately--he's hilarious.

[smeagle]

Originally Posted by Sekah

My favourite take-away from the lesson was how placement of reward was going to help my issue with Cohen lagging off the line. She had me have Cohen jump up to get her reward after a step or two of heeling. Almost immediately I'm seeing more enthusiasm and am quite happy with our progress. It's too soon to call anything solved, but I feel like I have a good idea of how to work through the issue. We've been doing lots of very brief sessions of fun heeling, and Cohen seems to be enjoying herself a lot.

Reward delivery can make such a big difference!

I was playing around with reward placement yesterday with the magnetic ball. I like prancy style heel work so that's what I'm working on training and developing muscle memory for.

[sassafras]

Welp, first Rally trial this weekend. Hopefully it won't look anything like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GRSbr0EYYU

[AdrianneIsabel]

Oh man LOL

[MandyPug]

Izzie's heeling retraining is coming along nicely. She targets my leg well and stays nice and close and at attention when we take a step. I'm taking it super slow this time though but she's super excited now that I'm being more specific and shaping it rather than luring.

[smeagle]

Here's a short video on our heelwork training, about three weeks in and lots of work to do but very happy with how she is coming along

http://youtu.be/YDpuLPL3Wd0

[Sekah]

I took my first group Open Trial Prep class, and we had a blast. I had been told that Cohen and I would be a bit behind the skill level of the others in the class, but it seemed like we were able to keep up pretty well. The highlight of my night was when the instructor and assistant told me that they'd take Cohen home with them in an instant.

Her focus and enthusiasm was wonderful the entire time. Even in our down time, she's staring holes into the side of my head, and people seemed to like that. For me, it's great when we're working. Not so great when we're not. :P

I'm hoping that the class will polish up our skills enough to give me the confidence to enroll in a Rally trial in January or February to (hopefully) finish up Cohen's RE title. We just need to proof her heeling and focus around food distractions a bit more. It's loads of fun, and I can't wait to get involved more deeply in the sport.

Finding the time for this, agility, flyball and my husband is proving to be tricky!

[Aleron]

Here's me and Whim in the ring

http://youtu.be/v6n9iseADdo

[release the hounds]

Originally Posted by Aleron

Here's me and Whim in the ring

http://youtu.be/v6n9iseADdo

Very nice. You two have a good relationship, it shows. Gets a little "loose" in the heeling at times, but still attentive, happy and willing.

Watching you two with that lady droning on in the background seemed funny to me. Talk about opposites

Great job.