February was a long month for Loot. I will link to a post I made in the ring confidence group of his obedience trial last weekend where he was heavily stressed outside of the rlng. And managed to pull it together for very nice work IN the ring, including a 200 score on sunday. But based on this trial, and some signs of his panic associations starting to generalize to different locations and different noises not at all connected to dogs, I set up behaviorist appointment. About a 2 month wait.
Oh and he earned his UKI agility championship this month!
Ginny did great and moved up to rally advanced! And she has had 2 amazing agility trials this month where she did some nice collection for me when needed and was very happy even at the building that is normally harder for her!
Acclimated, but the dog is still distracted?
In case you've missed it, I have a Ring Confidence training group on Facebook! This last month I didn't personally post as much outside of Loot's struggles.
But here is a post that came from my TEAM to Trials class where we were talking about acclimation and ready to work in a location that seems to have a lot of "new" distractions happening all the time. It can be hard for a dog to not notice the new stuff going on, and my aim with training is working towards a quick recovery and choosing to stay in the game. Click here to read!
Are you in the midwest? Seminar!
I am giving 2x half day seminars in Minneapolis, MN at TCOTC! Morning topic on starting rewards at a distance, afternoon topid on everything else ring confidence! A few working spots still remain!
February Training Videos
Here are 8 videos from the past month's daily uploads of training. Just click on the picture to be taken to tiktok. (And if you prefer the unedited versions (no music), head to facebook or instagram!) I hope these videos give you some helpful tips to try or inspire you to train something new!
Still working on backward circles with Freya Cat! Here I am attempting to work the 2nd "leg" of the circle- when she is behind me and is moving towards my right leg. Actually making progress!
Ginny has had some great agility runs this month! Lots of listening and zero weird outruns near the ring entrances when she has previously run by jumps. This UKI run looked like it would be extra tough for her so I ran it "NFC" and left the toy at the start, and skipped the #1 jump that went towards the audience. She nailed the challenges! I sent her to her toy after the 1st one and then held the toy for challenge #2.
Ginny is working on some go out foundations! Partly because I wanted to film more steps for my upcoming class on go outs, and partly because she actually needs some re-training with each individual piece since I have been re-training which side of the stanchion she touches on her go out. This session was supposed to just work on her name call= turn tight, counterclockwise, but Ginny insisted on a sit even with the smaller perch so I grabbed the big one.
This session with Ginny I was mainly goofing around and thought I would see how welll she understood the difference in her marker cues! "Toy" = run to the reward and grab it! "Candy" is my my marker cue for the end of run routine when the dog is on leash and we walk to the reward together, then I hand them the reward. It's pretty much always food. Ginny nailed it! You can see how "toy" has an instant arousal response as she rushes to the toy on the ground. And "Candy" is lower arousal and she moves with me nicely. This difference isn't something I will routinely practice like this as I also have context cues like where the rewarad is placed and the presence of the leash. But it was fun to see!
Grace is super cute with her drop on recall now! I have been working on "baking in" a scootch back on her down and it's really helping her down without all the extra steps!
Loot got his UKI Championship title, IAC! This run he almost didn't makes it as I panicked and aborted a blind cross. But he tries so hard and we avoided the refusal!
And gloves have been a major thing I've been working on with Ginny. She likes to "cheat" and press the glove against my leg to hold it with her chin rather than holding it in her mouth. I've been working on a better grip of the glove through movement games like spin and heeling. This has been SO hard for her!
Freya is working on her halts in heeling and struggling with a sit from motion. She wants to rub! And the rock back sit she has makes it a bit tougher too!
Upcoming April Classes
Registration opens March 22nd! Put a note on your calendar now so you won't forget!
Obedience is not all heeling and fronts! That "novice stuff" really is fun, but we can start all the things from the beginning! Learn scent articles, backing up, super pretty position changes, and more!
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Brand new class! And so far I've managed to write 9 lectures just on marking skills, 5 lectures just on the "sit" part of the go out, and a ton more! These skills can be started long before you perfect novice obedience!
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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!
