On Thursday Irie and I had our last Performance Puppy class. SNIFF!!! This is so sad. It was an awesome class and I have loads of things to work on with Irie this winter.
In our final class we worked on the It's Yer Choice recall some more - with classmates as partners. This meant our puppies needed to be quietly chilling in their crates while we worked with our classmate and their dog. I was very proud of how quiet Irie was. The first session I covered her crate, the second session I did not. She didn't make a peep. Knock on wood, she has super crate manners.
The It's Yer Choice recall is in many ways the equivalent of a "leave it" with no cue. We are going to have to work the HELL out of this as Irie has already picked up some unidentifiable item and eaten it! She's such a corgi!
We also started shaping the pups to go around an item. In the case of the short dogs, we used a large cone. The large dogs used chairs.
To end the class, Kathleen had us set up all the perches, boards, buja boards, fitness pods, and equipment we worked on in one long line. Then we asked the puppies to walk over the various surfaces.
If you are in Southeastern MA and have a puppy you are interested in doing performance with - this is the class for you!
Sunday, we had Puppy K. This week we went over nail trimming and worked on adding duration to our downs and sits. Irie is doing really well with adding duration. One issue I am running into is she doesn't believe me when I release her from a sit, down, or her crate with her release word. She thinks it is a trick, or I am testing her resolve. Katrin suggested I have her "heel" out of her stay for now which worked well.
Her down is really nice now and she maintains great eye contact.
We will have two weeks off before our next Puppy K class. Katrin is going to be running a Rally class/Foundation Comp. Obedience class in January. I need to decide if I am going to put Irie or Bug in it. I am leaning toward Irie since she is such a little sponge and seems to have a natural aptitude for heeling, etc. This means I would need to put Bug in another class somewhere else; either Nosework or Jenny's Rally class.
Of course, since I have no class for two weeks that means time for training at home!
In our final class we worked on the It's Yer Choice recall some more - with classmates as partners. This meant our puppies needed to be quietly chilling in their crates while we worked with our classmate and their dog. I was very proud of how quiet Irie was. The first session I covered her crate, the second session I did not. She didn't make a peep. Knock on wood, she has super crate manners.
The It's Yer Choice recall is in many ways the equivalent of a "leave it" with no cue. We are going to have to work the HELL out of this as Irie has already picked up some unidentifiable item and eaten it! She's such a corgi!
We also started shaping the pups to go around an item. In the case of the short dogs, we used a large cone. The large dogs used chairs.
To end the class, Kathleen had us set up all the perches, boards, buja boards, fitness pods, and equipment we worked on in one long line. Then we asked the puppies to walk over the various surfaces.
If you are in Southeastern MA and have a puppy you are interested in doing performance with - this is the class for you!
Sunday, we had Puppy K. This week we went over nail trimming and worked on adding duration to our downs and sits. Irie is doing really well with adding duration. One issue I am running into is she doesn't believe me when I release her from a sit, down, or her crate with her release word. She thinks it is a trick, or I am testing her resolve. Katrin suggested I have her "heel" out of her stay for now which worked well.
Her down is really nice now and she maintains great eye contact.
We will have two weeks off before our next Puppy K class. Katrin is going to be running a Rally class/Foundation Comp. Obedience class in January. I need to decide if I am going to put Irie or Bug in it. I am leaning toward Irie since she is such a little sponge and seems to have a natural aptitude for heeling, etc. This means I would need to put Bug in another class somewhere else; either Nosework or Jenny's Rally class.
Of course, since I have no class for two weeks that means time for training at home!
7 comments:
Your classes sound so fun!!!
For your release word problem you might need to actually train just the release. We do that with collar games, and lots of motion to start. We teach the release to be exciting and get the dog really driving forward. We do this in stages and sometimes vary the order. You don't want the dog to only release on a collar grab, or start breaking stays etc.
For example.
Grab the collar, excite puppy, throw toy, release word!
Sit, Throw toy, Grab Collar, Release word
Sit, Grab Collar Release word, throw toy
Sit, Release Word, Throw toy
We also play the 1,2,3 Go! (release word) game. Building excitement for the release. Email me if you want the full description and I'll find some notes.
Thanks, Amanda. This is SUPER helpful because she definitely is not understanding she can "Break." The only time it means anything to her is when I am feeding her. She knows that is the release to eat. I will e-mail you as I would love more notes!
That class sounded like a lot of fun...can't wait to start doggy school with Tucker in January
I just love that class and I only got to read about it, I will miss it too ;-), but I am sure you will be posting lots of other great training ideas you will come up with over the holidays ;-)!
PS, How cute Ire is smart enough not to be fooled by your clever proofing, (NOT! but I bet she knows she has not been fooled, LOL)how great she really understands her stays, that seems huge for such a little girl, I had a GREAT instructor one time that had me work on just the release, and before that I had not thought about it that much,but duh, the release is huge and I work on it seperately, I really try to keep it VERY fun-lots of exciting games and keep my criteria that the release is really happy and FAST! I think there are two types of stays, the one where a dog settles in and will be there for awhile and the stay where the dog should still be sitting on the edge of their seat ready to pounce as soon as they hear the magic word. SG 1-2-3 game is good for that, but mostly I make up a lot of games when we play to make that release word one where my dogs start looking around for some fun, but I definitely try to work that all by itself to start with.
Thanks, Kathy. This feedback is super helpful. I will start really training her release and make it a huge game.
Hi there! I just wanted to let you know that I have passed on to you the Liebster Blog Award. Check out my blog to learn more!
Congrats!!!
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