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Summer School blog 4th Nov

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Posted November 5th, 2008 by Aidan

Worked on cued recalls between three people, handler using whistle as cue. Beginner dogs did basic come game. Jet appeared to be looking for crickets when he heard the whistle, well spotted by the people working with him. We decided to drop the whistle in favour of a second verbal cue as allowed for in the test. We could re-condition the whistle, but it would take more work than we wanted.

Anna and Archie did lots of walking at a distance from us, Archie is coming along very well in this environment.

Remus did some good loose leash work.

Jack and Sabella did some parallel walking. Too easy for Jack, Sabella did react early on in a head-on pass but was able to perform later trials easily. Jack started to get a little nervous when we circled.

Remus and Jack did some parallel walking. Jack did really well, it was about the right level of stimulus for him. Remus got a little stressed/frustrated and went into 'frolic' mode towards the end, so we calmed him and ended the session. His response (jumping up at Cindy) was better than in previous sessions (biting her sleeve).

All dogs worked on holding ball for duration. Ness noted that Jack wanted to play with the ball and got tired of the exercise fairly early. This is a valid concern, food may not be very reinforcing in the presence of other available reinforcers. I suggested very short sessions (say 10 repetitions) interspersed with games of fetch. Homework will ensure success with this exercise. Starting the exercise with an object other than a ball is probably also a good idea.

At the end of the session Cindy had the usual problem of getting Remus back to the car. Targeting my finger worked well here, and Remus was even willing to follow my finger into the car. I suspect Remus will do a lot for a target, some dogs are like that and prefer to be given that sort of information. The trick was to ask for 'just enough' without going too far, or not far enough to keep him interested.

Homework for this week:
- duration for holding ball (or another object e.g dumbell), probably the highest priority
- loose leash towards bowl
- come game for beginner dogs

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