Finally made it to another Saturday morning training session today. It's been awhile and Red's next Rally trial is coming up in 2 weeks, so we needed this. I haven't been working with him the last 3 days. He's pumped up with energy, that's for sure!
Heeling - not bad. Same as usual. Focus could be better, but at least he stays with me. I caught him not paying attention and changed direction and corrected him and he was better after that.
Figure 8's - good. Nice quick sits. Good focus and heeling. I'm happy with his figure 8's.
Recall - has started anticipating my command by twitching like he's going to dart forward at any moment. So I've been walking back to him at least once, then leaving again before calling him. This seemed to help. And something new, once I call him, he'll start to a trot, then slow down like he wasn't sure he was supposed to come, so I have to say "come" again, then he comes in like normal. Not sure what that's all about. He did it twice. The fronts are getting a little better - he's not so widely out of position as before. He did come in straight once, and I got so excited that I rewarded him before he actually got his butt on the ground to sit. Ugh! Lots of tweaking still needed in the recall area...
Long sits/downs - HE DID IT!!! For the first time since we've been doing this classes, he sat through the entire 3 minutes, and down the entire 5 minutes, without ever showing signs of moving position, and I didn't have to return to him once!! So happy about this! I've been practicing this a bit at Bass Pro so I guess it paid off. So I know he will be fine for the 1 minute sit/3 minute down required for the CD. I jackpoted after each one becuase I was so happy. So now, just need to work on not getting him riled up after the long sit so we can go smoothly into the long down. But shouldn't be a problem.
Jumps - started introducing him to the jumps so we can proceed to Advanced Rally in March after we (hopefully) finish our RN in 2 weeks. Piece of cake. Jumps it without a problem off-leash, comes right back to heel and proceeds into other exercises. Just need to watch that he doesn't clip the bar with his back foot when he is trying to watch me instead of where the jump is. Since its starting to warm up a bit, maybe I can set up a mock jump in the garage or something to practice him clearing it soundly.
Dumbbell - well, I thought we were doing good.. but I think Red hates it now. He was doing well with just sitting and holding it til I released him, so Michelle wanted us to start having him walk with it (which he will do on his own when he's not being given commands). But when he is commanded to come, he drops it. It's like he can't walk and chew gum at the same time. If you ask him to do anything with the db in his mouth, he drops it. If you throw the db out, he will retrieve it and come back toward you, but drops it before he gets completely back. Toward the end of this, he began to realize he wasn't doing what we wanted and shut down completely. Wouldn't take it and hold it at all. Completely avoided it. I can't even get him to take it anymore. GAH! I don't want him to have a bad association with it. Maybe I'll put it away for a long while, concentrate more on Rally and Novice Obedience, and then reintroduce it later. I'm really worried he hates it now and I've dug myself a hole I won't be able to get him out of. But he's done this before with it, when he can tell he's not doing what I want him to, then has been fine. So hopefully he will snap out of it and be fine again.... I hope!
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2 comments:
did they run you through and score you like a trial ?
db work can be very tricky, especially if a dog has purely a play retrieve, and they dont understand all the portions of the entire sequence. it can definitely be frustrating - it took me over a year with berlin (not seriously working it) before we had any breakthrough - she would do anything she wanted with it, but the minute i had any control over the situation she wouldnt do it my way. both my dogs have db issues because they want it done their way... hmm...
No, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to do a run-through today. After working on the db stuff and the jumps, we ran out of time. But I'm thinking I'm going to wait on entering the obedience trial anyway. I'm just not happy with his recalls and I know he can do better. I don't want to go into the ring til I'm confident with all the exercises.
And about the db... what you said about your dogs makes me feel a lot better! At least I'm not the only one whose had issues with this. Granted, we JUST started, but its very frustrating to me, and then Red gets frustrated and shuts down, which frustrates me even more! What did you do to work on it throughout that year? Maybe I should get your email address sometime - if you don't mind me buugging you for details. But I really appreciate the comment - it makes me feel like all is not lost... yet.
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