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Summer School blog 11th Nov

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Posted November 12th, 2008 by Aidan

Tonight's session cancelled due to poor weather, but rain cleared up and several people turned up so we had an unofficial class.

Due to low numbers we had Koolie, Remus and Jet do a random walk in the middle of the field. Archie took one side at a distance, and Sabella took the other.

Sabella was able to move into the group very soon, and Archie was able to move quite close.

Koolie got a little bit amped when Sabella barked at one stage, but did not show a serious reaction.

Sabella was put back in the car so I could work with Archie. Tricia and Jet circled a stationary Archie and were able to get within 2' with me standing in the middle. Archie showed no sign of reaction, but was evidently just on threshold.

Tricia worked 300-Peck "Calming Yo Yo" with Jet tethered to the car. Tricia walked one step, clicked and returned. No food was used, but some petting. This worked exceptionally well and Jet picked it up very quickly. I didn't take note of the number of steps Tricia was able to take, but there were no resets. I would estimate about 12-15 metres.

Cindy worked some targeting with Remus. Remus seems to respond very well to targeting, and I was able to bring him back from straining to get to other dogs by presenting a target and 'getting him operant'. We used targeting to take him to the car each time (he normally bogs down and won't go to car). Cindy was able to achieve this without my help, and will only improve.

We decided to do Come Game using two tug toys next week, for Remus. His food drive is existent, but not strong enough. Every dog moves at their own pace, but Remus will get left behind in recalls if we don't speed his response up now and Cindy and I agree that we can gee him up with Tug games.

Archie picked up the Come Game very quickly. He is a very operant little guy and Anna's timing is now excellent.

Homework this week same as last week.

Plan for next week - Loose Leash walking parallel with other dogs, towards other dogs etc as per test. I think all dogs in group should excel at this now, so long as we get distance and dog-dog pairings right.

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