1:15pm - Send to crate from 6 feet away - big prize: rawhide bone with peanut butter mixed in.

2pm - Late start today! Play some tuggies. I had to really yuck it up as she always seem a bit out of it when I pull her out of her crate. I had to throw it, hide with it and go crazy. She did tug eventually when she realized that she was being left out of the game.

Work on hand touch back to my right side. This is the starting point for the “close” command. This went well. Very easy, treats for every bump.

We did some left pivots. I just throw these in and she gets rewarded whenever she moves herself into a straight heel position. Then we played some more. She felt so left out of the fun I was having with the tuggy toy that she stole the squeaky sun out of the kitchen basket of toys. Sneaky girl. We’ll save the sun for another game!

Did some crate games. She’ll send reliably with me about four feet away. We need to work on distance with some really yummy, special treats.

6:30pm Play with the jumps. Fun and games. Table games as well. I ran away from her when she had the frisbee. And sometimes I ran away when I had the frisbee. Not too much rubbing - significantly less than the last few times we’ve played. Lots of good jumping! Then some scootches.

6:45pm - take Katy to play frisbee. As we were walking home, we saw the old golden. She was “interested”, but we easily walked on past. She was carrying her frisbee the whole way home.

8:45pm - Ellie’s dinner. Outside to pee in the backyard. Off leash, but I was with her. About 2 oz. for collar grabs - gentle with quiet talking. Very good. Then the rest for work on the wobble board (on carpet). Doing well on the wobble board - getting her to “make it move” for reinforcement. After dinner was over, we played a really fun game of chase and tug for the stuffed sun. She was really, really into it. For the whole 15 to 20 minutes she didn’t try to rub the GL at all. Did a few crate games and releases to tug on the sun.

9:10pm - Fed Katy - she got hers in her bowl with green beans.

1. Start to teach “close” - basically, a swing finish into heel position on my right side. (”Side” is my word for this same position on my left, though I don’t think Ellie associates the word with the position yet.)

2. Verify that Ellie understands the “side” position well enough to give it a verbal cue. Apply the verbal cue.

3. Play more crate games. See how far away we can get and still send to the crate successfully. Currently, I can send reliably from about 4 feet, straight in.

4. Work on left pivots and correcting heel position on her own. She’s very close to “getting it”

5. Continue to work on hand targets. Currently the plexiglass is on my hand completely. Work on getting it on the floor without my hand.

7. Work on collar grabs with dinner. Add a few mild ones before playing games - with lots of fun treats.

8. Have fun with the jumps. Make some low ones that she can play around in. Save the purple rubber frisbee for just this game.

9. Bring the step ladder inside and work on trotting through it.

10. LLW, of course.

11. Scootch. Call to front position and then scootch.

12. Find something to use as a perch. This is a job for me.

As much as I love this picture of Ellie, I think that it tells the story of our working relationship.

My job was to take her to the park so that she could go find interesting smells and activities that didn’t involve me. I was my dog’s chauffer!

The tell-all of this relationship was our inability to work reliably at the Skills camp that we just attended at ‘SayYes!‘. What a wasted opportunity (though I learned a lot and wouldn’t have missed it for anything).

The next picture I hope to be able to take is one of Ellie running towards me!

No Ruff Love today. I slept in until 11:00am - finally catching up from two straight weeks of never stopping once.

We have played tuggies three times today and at this moment, we have sleepy dogs in the living room - let me check where Ellie is…on the couch. And we played tug, tug, tug with the purple frisbee while doing about 4 random jumps upstairs in the training room. This is so key and I’m happy to see her jumping without any trepidation - it’s all just a game. I may head down to Linda’s for similar practice in the barn.

Time to get back with the program!

6pm - The day wasn’t a total waste. Put Ellie in crate while I took Katy to play frisbee. Katy and I took the long way around the block coming home. She carried her frisbee and wasn’t even phased as we walked past Addy. Very nice!

7pm - Brought Ellie out while Katy was in the backyard. Played with some nice hand-targets and left pivots. She is getting really good at the left pivots and even did a few without my movement as a cue. Still wanting to rub off the GL.

7:15pm - Walk around the block with Ellie - working on LLW. She’s starting to get it and it’s a beautiful thing to see. We saw the old golden and I had her sit and tried to get auto-watches. She did okay until the dog was past us and going the other way, then she wanted to go after him. I should have done a “let’s go” with lots of treats as soon as the dog was on his way. Likewise with the little one we saw. I think the stationary position increases the tension of the situation - walking, heeling, etc. would distract her and give her something more exciting to do instead of worrying about the other dog.

7:45am - Walk up to the art center and back up. GL and fried chicken. Not so good LLW on the way up. Good LLW on the way back. I’ve decided that it’s not acceptable to be over a dog’s body length ahead, even if the leash isn’t tight. Because that’s just way to close to being wrong. The criteria is that the plane of her body has to be somewhat aligned with mine. It can be her hind end, but it still has to be there. As soon as her whole body is ahead of me, action stops and I move backwards.

I’m also waiting to click and treat until after she’s back with me and has taken a few steps. Otherwise I’m afraid of setting up a “stop, comeback, treat, go back out” habit. Everyonce in awhile I will treat her for fixing her position on her own (rewarding the initiative!).

Worked attention in the driveway across the street.

8:00am - In the house. Played with the furry toy. It took her at least 5 minutes to show any interest (while I sat there second guessing the GL). It seems that as soon as she gets the urge to play and interact, she drops down on the floor to rub the GL on the rug, then I interrupt it and her energy drops down. Maybe I need to play with her on the hw floor. I tried playbows, having fun with the toy, etc. Throwing it seems to be a good initiator. Once she got going she tugged pretty well. We did some wobble board and tugging and some crate games with tugging.

8:15am - In to Katy’s crate with a frozen kong. Katy is in her crate. Musical crates.

1pm - Katy didn’t want to go out, so I left her in the house.

Ellie and I walked up to the art center and around the two paths. LLW with cheddar cheese. Not so great on the way up. Much better on the way back. Using new criteria.

Let Ellie and Katy out together in the backyard for about 10 minutes.

Put Ellie in crate and worked with Katy first. Walking backwards up the stairs.

Then worked Ellie walking up the stairs backwards (!) and just a few jumps onto the wobble board. The wobble board is still on the carpet. Next step will be to move it on to the rubber mats upstairs, then to the porch (wood). Played some tuggies - started off by throwing it around and it went much better.

Played “Ready, steady” with Katy - grabbing her collar and getting her going. She did really well at this game. Threw the furry toy out and she got it.

6pm - Took Katy out first. Practiced some heeling and left pivots. Did some ready, steady games and then let her go outside. Lots of tuggies with the “new” toy (braided with rubber tube)

6:30pm - Brought Ellie out. Went upstairs to play on the table and some jumps (I bumped the jump up one notch and she didn’t even notice). Once again, as soon as I initiated play, she wanted to rub. I played with the toy by myself and had a wonderful time for about five minutes. Finally, she joined in and played for a few minutes. I’m trying to make sure I always end these tug games before she does. Fun!

7pm - Walked around the block - up to the art center, down Highland and back up Elm. Really, really worked on LLW with cheddar cheese. It’s her choice - her body position drives my movement. She may be about ready to see the light as we had a few moments of brilliance.

7:30pm - took Katy with me in the car while I ran to the drugstore to pick up a few things. The new Katy-sized crate does NOT fit in the car. Darn.

8:00am - Out in the backyard with Katy. No GL, no supervision. While I took a shower.

2:00pm - Walked down to the corner on GL with fried chicken for LLW. OK. Worked attention in the front yard.
Quickie session on wobble board - working comfortably at about 65% confidence. Setup cool-cot and shaped it like the mat.

5:30pm - Out in the backyard with Katy for quick potty with GL on (on all afternoon). Back in to crate after some tugging while I took Katy to the vet (drew blood on Katy for thyroid testing).

6:15pm - Out to play tuggies, go to cot. Upstairs to practice on jump. Very good. Got her tugging and she jumped even better. Did just a few front crosses over the jump and quit while it was still fun. Crate games and tugging - retrieves with the squeaky mouse and then back in the crate while I walked Katy.

7pm - Took Katy to play frisbee and walk around the block. She carried her frisbee home - and we went the long way around the school. We walked by two labs on the other side of the street and she didn’t even mind!

8:15pm - out for walk on GL with fried chicken. Down and around school. Worked on just a few little recalls, LLW, walking backwards up stairs. Shaped getting up on the bottom of the slide on the playground. Attention across the street from Addy’s house. Quick romp in the backyard. Tugging in the LR - wobble board and a few crate games to come out and tug.

10pm - late dinner - frozen lamb bone on mat next to me.

A few weeks ago, I purchased Greg Derrett’s two training videos, Foundations and Shame About the Handler. I’m now officially in love with Greg’s handling techniques. His foundation work is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I just wish I would have had this video at the beginning of the summer.

Fortunately, fall in Ohio is usually pretty nice, so I still have at least two months of nice outdoor weather. Truthfully, some of the circlework would be fun to work outside in the snow as well.

Jo’s “Teach Your Dog to Turn” (membership required) and “Direction Cues”

So, thinking about left and right directional cues. Jo makes a very good point about pre-planning what the cue will mean when it is delivered. Does “left” mean turn left now or does it mean turn left after the next obstacle. I think the way that I’ve taught Ellie and Katy “left”, it’s definitely a turn left now signal. And it’s definitely a spin. I’m not sure that I can take the spin and adapt it with the same cue to equipment.

SG instructed us to teach the directionals without the spin. The dog needs to be able to head in the right direction without spinning themselves around in a circle. But, if I’m reading Jo’s article correctly (and following Greg’s example), the spin is taught first and then adapted to useful directionals on the equipment. I’m a bit confused about the best way to do this. Though, by teaching Ellie to spin left, and reinforcing it so that it’s become an extremely reliable behavior, I can definitely get her to respond and turn to her left side almost instantaneously. Some more thinking on my part is required.

Greg’s “wait” command is going to be my command of the week. It’s obviously essential to all future exercises and I really like the stand position. I also like the routine of placing the dog in the wait. I may want to shape it - though I wonder if the routine of the physical cues (lifting the dog a bit, then grabbing the scruff) help reinforce the behavior because the cue is so distinct.

Started some object discrimination. She will learn which toy is which! Started with the little shark. Turned out to be more of a polite retrieve session.

Lots of swimming tonight at the lake. Ellie braved some rather large waves and did quite nicely. Katy, of course, was only willing to retrieve a log. Thank goodness Frank has a good throwing arm(s).

Katy: Two foot touch to mousepad. Experimenting with target for contacts. Try it out on Katy and then decide if I want to use it with Ellie. Plans to tape Ellie, Katy, Pete and Woody running and pausing on contacts just to get a good image of body position. May use other dogs in Julie’s agility class as well.

Katy: Also practiced backing up. Added the verbal command. She loves to do this. Silly girl.

Awesome seminar. Notes to come soon.