Well, yesterday during the time I would usually write my blog I was doing some updating on the computer which, out here in the country, takes about 5 hours. But! Yesterday was a good day so I thought I'd post an update this morning.
She is already about 80% reliable on "heel/autosit". If distracted by a horse or a shiny thing she needs to be reminded to sit but most of the time she does well. There is no pulling when she is told to "heel" but she still gets a bit rude during the potty walks when she is not in a command.
We started the "down" command yesterday also and at first she hated it. The way I teach "down" is, after she has sat down in a "heel," I give her the verbal command and hand signal and then slowly lower myself to encourage her to lay down with my left hand on her head and arm laying down her neck. At first she had an extremely common reaction. She locked her front legs and braced herself against me. Her little face looked so confused! I scooped her front feet out from under her with my right hand and (gently) lowered her into a "down" position. We repeated this a few times and by late afternoon she was starting to get it. She realized that I would start petting her more quickly if she just beat me to the punch. I still have to place my hand and arm on her to get her to go down but she takes it from there and lays down by herself. I am hoping to make a good deal more progress on this today.
We also worked on "implied stay." Considering her almost non-existent attention span I thought that "implied stay" was going to be a huge argument between us. "Implied stay" simply means having her stay in whatever command I have put her in without needing to tell her to. The idea is that if I tell her to "sit" she will stay seated until I tell her to do something else. I should not tell her to "stay" because I have told her to "sit."
She got the idea almost immediately. She is pretty reliable with this in the training room where there are few distractions (although Angela the garage kitty seems to be taking a special interest in this Board and Train). Outside she gets it but makes mistakes a little more often. However, she is easy to correct and she is not confused.
I hope today to continue working on the above things and also to start "recall." I am expecting either today or tomorrow to be our argument day. Every Board and Train has a day where, for whatever reason, the dog bucks and puts up roadblocks. It is usually in the first 3 days and after that it is smooth sailing. We will see how today goes and hopefully it is a productive day. Will post about how she did tonight.
She is already about 80% reliable on "heel/autosit". If distracted by a horse or a shiny thing she needs to be reminded to sit but most of the time she does well. There is no pulling when she is told to "heel" but she still gets a bit rude during the potty walks when she is not in a command.
We started the "down" command yesterday also and at first she hated it. The way I teach "down" is, after she has sat down in a "heel," I give her the verbal command and hand signal and then slowly lower myself to encourage her to lay down with my left hand on her head and arm laying down her neck. At first she had an extremely common reaction. She locked her front legs and braced herself against me. Her little face looked so confused! I scooped her front feet out from under her with my right hand and (gently) lowered her into a "down" position. We repeated this a few times and by late afternoon she was starting to get it. She realized that I would start petting her more quickly if she just beat me to the punch. I still have to place my hand and arm on her to get her to go down but she takes it from there and lays down by herself. I am hoping to make a good deal more progress on this today.
We also worked on "implied stay." Considering her almost non-existent attention span I thought that "implied stay" was going to be a huge argument between us. "Implied stay" simply means having her stay in whatever command I have put her in without needing to tell her to. The idea is that if I tell her to "sit" she will stay seated until I tell her to do something else. I should not tell her to "stay" because I have told her to "sit."
She got the idea almost immediately. She is pretty reliable with this in the training room where there are few distractions (although Angela the garage kitty seems to be taking a special interest in this Board and Train). Outside she gets it but makes mistakes a little more often. However, she is easy to correct and she is not confused.
I hope today to continue working on the above things and also to start "recall." I am expecting either today or tomorrow to be our argument day. Every Board and Train has a day where, for whatever reason, the dog bucks and puts up roadblocks. It is usually in the first 3 days and after that it is smooth sailing. We will see how today goes and hopefully it is a productive day. Will post about how she did tonight.
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