Thursday, December 27, 2007

Oh Carmelita.....

Well, with the rain, I figured I would bring up my poles and set them up in my in-law's porch. Why not. So off to work with the pooches.

Carmen is such a scaredy dog!! She thinks the cages are going to eat her (note: I opted to go with cage method first then use channel method later for speed if needed). I set up a fiesta trail of treats (LOTS and LOTS) through the cages and she wouldn't venture in. After about 30 minutes her belly got the better of her and she ventured a paw forth. I was proud of myself for being patient. Hysterical, one paw forward while prepared to back up quickly. We played this for quite some time, until she was able to go through without issue. Still not confident, but I didn't want to push it. I'll bring the poles out again tomorrow and work on it some more.

I ran Ike through the poles a few times from various positions. He is getting much better about directionals (not verbals) - If I am being smart about which hand I use, he makes the correct decision about 80% of the time. Since I haven't consciously worked on this, I am pleased. And it reminds me that since it is obviously incorporated in our training I should work on it some more. He has the gist, of course, it is more the handler I am concerned about!

4 comments:

Katrin said...

Would Carmen follow Ike through the cages?

Jules said...

She might....I'll have to see if she will tonight.

manymuddypaws said...

why don't you set up just one gate and c/t her when she is brave for one. With a scared dog I would teach the gates seperate from the weaves at first- so you don't have any "the weaves are scary" issues...

Jules said...

I haven't had a chance to work on this yetagain - I am thinking that might be a good idea. I take things too fast sometimes, if I don't have anyone to remind me to slow down!