Training walk with Hana.
We practiced some long line skills, come when called, ignoring other people and dogs, sits and downs away from home, and how not to chase the ducks 🦆🦆
It was all fun and games until she rolled in something stinky!
Terriers! Starring Chester, Roo, Billie and Jack....
Terriers are not for the faint hearted, and can come with some challenges, but they are such versatile amazing learners who are a lot of fun to train.
Little scent work search for Jack
I set a somewhat ambitious (foolish?) target of teaching Chilli scent work in just two months, ready for the next Scent Snouts Games competition on 25th August.
In order to be ready Chilli needed to be able to find and indicate on two odours, be able to find multiple hides, and ignore some mild distractions.
I'm not sure if we will succeed (especially since Chilli now has to have surgery to remove a broken tooth tomorrow), but I'm really pleased with how far she has come in such a short time.
Here is this morning's search, and some of our first attempt at a blind search in a new location earlier this week.
Nemo is fine once his harness is on, but he shows some avoidance and moves away when I pick it up.
So... this is the first session in full working on building confidence with putting the harness on. This isn't a finished product, he needs a few more sessions to progress to confidently opting in to putting the harness on.
Figuring out how to control those back legs is tough!
I captured some video of 4 month old Nemo interacting with Spy and Chilli this morning.
I've added some text to explain what I like about these interactions. Dog / dog play or interaction is often poorly understood by the human end of the lead. Frequently dogs who owners perceive as 'friendly' are not acting appropriately. Sometimes during play we can be unsure when to interrupt and when to let it continue.
Here is the message I want to send.... play is consensual. It involves actual communication between dogs. If there is no consent from one party, it's inappropriate bullying not play.
Nemo did such a great job of communicating with my dogs here.... very impressive at such a young age.
Darcy is spending the week training with me.
This is some work on loose lead walking at the park, with special guest appearance from Dozer who is doing some training with Laura from Gone Sniffin
Weather left a bit to be desired!
Spy's Rally-O round from yesterday. Sadly ended up on 99 / 100 and just missed qualifying (but still placed 2nd)
I'm really happy with this cooperative play session by Hana.
She shows lovely commitment, is becoming increasingly happy to push the toy back to me, she switches between two toys (demonstrating her learning that interacting with me is more reinforcing that possessing the toy she has), and she is now able to 'down' without conflict when I am holding the toy (demonstrating some good impulse control).
Why do I care? Because if we want to train using reinforcement, building really strong cooperative play is going to pay dividends later. It is also great for relationship building.
Some of this morning's work from Hana
What a difference a day makes!
This is day 3 of Hana's stay. Yesterday we had a lot of 'don't wanna don't hafta' attitude, and not a lot of cooperation. We were struggling with downs (especially when I had a toy), she was refusing to get on the station, and very reluctant to out the toy.
By contrast, I'm very happy with todays sessions. She is starting to understand some really important concepts here including:
Sometimes moving or looking away from the food / toy is what is going to earn the food / toy.
Switching between food and toys during the same training session.
Outing the toy on cue is the quickest way to restart the game.
Offering behaviours during training is worthwhile and fun.
Wet morning scent game for Riff and Chilli.
2 Cedarwood, 1 clovebud hides
Teaching Riff scentwork in her old age turned out to be such a good way to provide enrichment. She can't walk much now, can't see well, very deaf, but the nose still works....
Day stay and train for Billie today
Taking photos is getting a bit easier now we have a bit of duration in the sit!
Ziggy absolutely rocked his first experience of a walking on a pavement next to a busy road.
Some loose leash walking away from home for Ziggy...
This is what I am looking for when Ziggy exits a crate, be it at home or in the car. I want him to offer a down instead of try to barge out. I want him to hold position while I unlatch the crate, and wait for a verbal release.
This time I didn't have to cue it, he offered the desired behaviour as he is starting to understand what will get him released most quickly.
Ziggy woke up bouncy and keen this morning!
It's a good opportunity to work on some impulse control and duration.
I like to train puppies to understand right from the start that sit and down are duration behaviours. When I cue sit or down, it means sit or down UNTIL you hear my release word or I cue another behaviour. Once a pup understands how to get into position, I would stop reinforcing immediately their bottom hits the floor, because a 'pop up' sit or down is not very useful.
Another concept I want to explain early on is sometimes you will be reinforced for moving away from me. Stationing on a mat is a really useful behaviour worth investing some time in for both sport and pet dogs.
