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Summer School blog 2nd Dec

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Posted December 3rd, 2008 by Aidan

Surprise Attacks -
Archie and Koolie parallel walked to club-rooms, then approached from opposite sides around a corner. The corner had a wire section, so the dogs could see one another just before rounding the corner.

At first Cath and Anna took a wide approach with their dogs, but on each successive trial got closer and closer. The dogs passed each other well within leash lengths on last trial.

This exercise was repeated with Sabella (my dog) and Koolie. Again, lots of success and Sabella urinated twice within a leash length of Koolie without any sign of stress at all. No reactions whatsoever. Parallel walk back to cars.

A different sort of surprise attack -
Cath and Koolie waited while Cindy and Remus approached on a loose leash. They were allowed to greet, on-leash. Remus did look a little uncomfortable and Koolie picked up on it, but there was nothing to worry about until Remus tangled the leash around Cath, Koolie got upset and there was a noisy scuffle. It didn't look like a proper fight was likely to develop and the dogs were separated promptly. We then went into some parallel walking and both dogs appeared calm pretty soon.

Recalls -
Anna and Archie have obviously been practising the come game. We "300 Pecked" it for distance and got quite a long way before the behavior started to break down.

Remus also did very well, and was motivated by food. He did a lot of solid repetitions, added some distance.

Koolie, enthusiastic as always. We played the game with 5 people and he was almost flawless. I then added a food distraction, which he figured out pretty quickly. Not as polished as last summer, but it won't take long.

Sabella, started off enthusiastic but clearly needs more polish. I abandoned the food distraction. I also attempted, foolishly, a recall off someone else's recall but it was not to be. More work required! Her recall last summer was excellent, it has deteriorated very quickly. She was very sociable and willing to work for other people's food, sits and drops etc

Homework - loose leash towards food target (in bowl, or towards person holding food) Hold ball for duration.

Special homework for Remus - part of meals inside car. Next week we'll work on putting him in the car, then taking him back out again as reinforcer.

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