At the fun match yesterday Simi was screaming at the dogs running the course and flailing, and at one point I lifted her over my shoulder and carried her out like a 2 year old who was throwing a tantrum because I was worried she'd distract the dog who was running.
So my question now is that I'd like to get all that amped up want to go-go-go energy (would we call this prey drive? ...or?) and put it into her tugging. Her breeder has expressed to me before that some of her dogs have been to high drive to watch sports like agility and so it's something I'd like to work on handling now, while she's only 5 months instead of when she's 18 months, full grown and doing the same thing before her run.
Yesterday what I was doing was I took her out of threshold and got her interested in her tug and while we were tugging I'd pull her a little closer, "yay good puppy, keep your tug!" then back away from her and tug some more. We did this several times and she was able to get within watching distance but not for prolonged periods of times.
This is also something I'm going to try to work with Psyche, too. She really gets very 'into' little dogs and fast dogs while they're running, and so the other day I did allow her to watch them, and she was like... shaking/whining/squealing but then when I took her onto the field, she was actually pretty focused on me... but if at all possible, I'd like to get her into her tug mode while she's that "on"...
Anyway, yeah... suggestions?
So my question now is that I'd like to get all that amped up want to go-go-go energy (would we call this prey drive? ...or?) and put it into her tugging. Her breeder has expressed to me before that some of her dogs have been to high drive to watch sports like agility and so it's something I'd like to work on handling now, while she's only 5 months instead of when she's 18 months, full grown and doing the same thing before her run.
Yesterday what I was doing was I took her out of threshold and got her interested in her tug and while we were tugging I'd pull her a little closer, "yay good puppy, keep your tug!" then back away from her and tug some more. We did this several times and she was able to get within watching distance but not for prolonged periods of times.
This is also something I'm going to try to work with Psyche, too. She really gets very 'into' little dogs and fast dogs while they're running, and so the other day I did allow her to watch them, and she was like... shaking/whining/squealing but then when I took her onto the field, she was actually pretty focused on me... but if at all possible, I'd like to get her into her tug mode while she's that "on"...
Anyway, yeah... suggestions?