Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ummm, GOOBER!

It's been called to my attention that I am being a goober with Ike. I set up these play dates for Ike with Ellie for him to WATCH her and then yesterday I spent a lot of time trying to entice him to do things. "Scary" for Ike things. Drat. Not the point, Julie!!

The good news is that Ike watched Ellie do "Touch" with great interest. This is something we have not been able to master no matter how much we try. Ike's idea of "Touch" is to paw at the object OR if it is my hand, maybe bump it with the bridge of his muzzle.

He also chose to do the SeeSaw out of the blue, and did it correctly. And he played with Ellie.

Unfortunately I am not sure if three positives outweigh 4 "scary" things. It might be a wash. HOWEVER, it has served as a great reminder to me about what the point of this exercise is. And the point is to do what Ike wants and let him WATCH. Not what Julie wants Ike to do!!

5 comments:

Katrin said...

Yeah Julie!!!! :-)))))

Jules said...

Now if I can just remember my intentions! purpose! and point!

Katrin said...

It's a learning curve. We all do really well for a while, then plateau or even regress, and then get BETTER again! :-)

Cat, Tessie, & Strata said...

I'm getting the feeling that there are agility obstacles in this pen that the dogs are free to get on or off as they please. Is this the case?

I ask because that's generally not recommended. Think of all the scary stuff that happens when you're there to supervise agility -- now imagine not being there to 'back him up' and encourage him to be brave!

Jules said...

I agree with that idea generally; but I think Ike's personality is kind of an exception. I mean he's just not a willy-nilly dog - he won't go into a silly agilelite tunnel because it rocks. Since I am working really hard on distance with Ike, even if I'd sent him up the teeter I wouldn't have been nearby and able to "save" him.

I recognize that dogs are always going to surprise you and it is certainly better to be safe than sorry!