This summer has not quite been what I expected to accomplish with the dogs' training. Way too busy with moving stuff, but it will hopefully be done quite soon!
Loot was successfully able to do another agility trial and did quite well despite some struggles he's had recently in class with some higher-pitched barking from adorable puppies!
Ravioli is still struggling with figuring out his GI stuff. We will be changing again to a different hydrolyzed brand. But we are making some nice progress on getting to do occasional agility foundation work. He still says no thanks quite a lot when he doesn't feel quite well, but he's so much fun when he does!
And Ginny doesn't have any lofty goals we've been working on. But in September, she actually has an obedience fun match where I will get to play with her in open and graduate open for the first time! I'm really excited because there haven't been any formal fun matches in this area for an incredibly long time (more than 10 years??)! Since Ginny cannot compete in obedience trials for real, this is my best opportunity!
Ring Confidence
In case you've missed it, I have a Ring Confidence training group on Facebook! Posts were sparse yet again due to my move, and I'm very optimistic that September is going to be a great month! π
βHere's a quick post on different types of delays you want to practice before trialing. I break them down into 2 different types of delays:
- Short delays, where we want to keep them setup
- Longer delays, where I'm purposely going to break my dog out
βThis post looks at what we want to think about doing in future trials once we start to work on our routines to help the dog's confidence.
And this post looks at acclimation time and what my specific routine is with Ginny who needs that sniffing acclimation.
August Training Videos
Here are 7 videos from the past month's daily uploads of training. Just click on the picture to be taken to youtube. (And if you prefer the non-music versions, head to facebook or instagram!) I hope these videos give you some helpful tips to try or inspire you to train something new!
Ravi had his first session on teaching a pop-up stand! His little pup is much more normal of the dogs that I teach compared to Ginny's full boing!
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Trial stress affects more than just the dog! I want to prepare the dog for what weird things I might do in a trial, including being very abrupt with my movement. In obedience it shows up a lot on the halts but you could just as easily practice anything you might do weird in a trial from holding your breath, to frowning your face in concentration as you pretend to read rally signs, to crowding them on weave poles. Here Ginny practiced bad halts with me!
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Loot has done some work on his fronts and still needs me to pivot away from him in order to get him to think about rotating further. But he also really loves when I do a small gasp when he is correct π
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Ravioli is doing some very short sequences with a pre-placed reward. It allows me to get a little bit more independent, send to the obstacle, and to make sure I can keep practicing the handling I would do without needing to worry about my timing of getting the reward on his line. But it does mean that he has to go past the reward in order to get it and can't run straight to it!
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More ring prep from Ginny. This time she's working on having what I call "surprise distractions" that are placed in my working area before I go out to get her. And usually she doesn't know these are there until we start work. If she were more of a visual scanning type of dog, then I would put her back in the crate when she was ready so I could place the distractions without her seeing. Since she's done quite a bit of this before, we did a little work on challenging her ability to transition between exercises with these distractions out.
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And here Ravioli is working on scooching back in and down to his rear foot target. He's only done a session or 2 of this with food a long time ago, and toys are a bit harder to help him. I will ultimately use this to help us down at a distance and his drop-on recall. It's also a great foundation for service dogs or any dog doing a lot of out and about work and need to tuck themselves under chairs.
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And finally, I will share Apollo's last video! I had him for 2 1/2 months, and I'm really proud of how we were able to go from ground zero in understanding pivoting skills and focus while moving to what I think is some pretty darn good heelwork!
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Upcoming Classes
Registration opens September 22nd, mark your calender if you want to play along with some obedience foundation fun! No need to have taken the level 1 TEAM obedience class to join!
βTeach a retrieve from step 1. Have fancy fronts and heeling through pivoting. Teach the foundations for marking a line, and more! Obedience is fun!β
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Follow me on the social media platform of your choice to try and catch all my daily training videos. I hope they inspire you to try something fun with your dog! And join my free facebook group on building ring confidence for dog sports!
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