Yesterday Carmie had her first 5 Directions class. It went well. We worked on "switch" with gates and cones. Very fun. I like this method of teaching "switch" a lot. Essentially, the handler and dog walk alongside a cone and then the handler uses the outside arm to direct the dog around the cone, away from the handler. It can be done with an inside arm as well, as long as you then remember to treat with the outside arm!
It amazes me how much distance Carmen prefers. Katrin has to constantly remind me to give her more space that I am pushing her around/past things.
I was also happy that Carmie was pretty non-reactive last night. She went a little bit terrier on me when Baxter Black (Ike's fave LR) came into the arena, but I was quickly able to redirect her with some eye contact and cheese and that-was-that.
Homework for the week is to practice toy motivation and "switch." Katrin has new short gates that Blue made for her and I think I need to make some of my own. They would be super handy in all sorts of training situations - especially since Honor will soon be an agility-baby too.
2 months ago
2 comments:
I'm glad Carmen had a good class! The gates are so easy to make and definitely useful.
We missed you and Iris. I think this class will be helpful in transitoining Ms. Iris into being comfy around active dogs - because so much is on the flat, etc.
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