Saturday, March 5, 2011

Rally Class

Bug and I had Rally class today. I have some definite things to work on: 270 Left, About Left Turn, and Down Walk Around your Dog.

I need to teach Bug a "back" cue. Given how eager he is to work I don't think this will be too hard, but we will see. I have never taught "back" in this context before. It is for the 270 Left in particular, but I see it used in other instances as the signs become more advanced. If anyone has any suggestions I am all ears. Either way I will get my clicker out and play around.

Today Bug had an opportunity to say "hi" to the Chinese Crested in our class, Li-ling. She has a lovely temperament. I asked her owner if it was typical for the breed. She said no, but my goodness what a nice dog. He also had the opportunity to say "hello" to a young Border-Jack who he thought was quite cute.

I am happy Bug's focus is better than decent given how large the class is and how many young female dogs are in class. I think Bug wishes it were a play group. Truly, though, his focus is nice and he is engaged in working with me.

Now if I can just get one of the downstairs rooms cleaned up and have a place to practice I think we will start improving in leaps and bounds! 

4 comments:

Kim said...

Have you tried any perch work to help with those left turns? It can be very useful in teaching dogs that they can move their rear separately from their front. I find it really helps the dog be able to "get their butt in" on those left turns and pivots. :)

Jules said...

Excellent! I actually haven't had Bug do any perch work. I will definitely do some work with that. Thank you!

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

Rally class sounds like a lot of fun. I hope we can do a rally class soon!

101mutts said...

Yeah, I'd also recommend perch work. I'm assuming that means have dog put front feet on a footstool or book and move their hind end while keeping the paws up higher. I hadn't heard the term before.

Tom has beautiful pivots because of that. I did it with him a lot and then one day for some reason it clicked and he realized he could do that on the ground and with the left finish and with pivots. Happy moment!

As for teaching back, I'm guessing you taught this with Katrin's space game? I taught Tom to back straight up from in front of me without my needing to move into him, but I don't think that's what you want. It did help him understand the concept when I wanted him to back up in heel position.