Black Panther is officially 9 months old today. 💜🖤Gaining confidence with training more and more as each day goes by. Some clips taken from our most recent training sessions. 🥹
Time takes time and breaks are ok.
#FoundationFriday took a bit of a pause with Pan. Does it mean we weren’t training? Well yes and no. I wanted to post an update on our training adventure as I think it’s an important reminder about the practice of checking in on goal achievement. While goals tend to be more set in stone, the process of achievement can be very fluid. This summer we took a break from training agility to focus on some bigger picture goals. The perfect storm hit where I was not the handler or trainer Pan needed and he needed some time to grow.
This summer was filled with grief, loss, and overwhelming emotions for me. This summer also held a lot of growth, healing, and resiliency. Pan struggled with normal puppy emotional growth and a small fear period. Pan is a very sensitive guy and wants to be right. When training if he did something incorrect, he would disengage. This was a common experience with agility training only and I narrowed it down to struggling with confidence when faced with new skills. All of this meant neither of us were on our A-game. Our perfect storm.
We took a break from agility training. We focused on resiliency skills and continued to grow in our relationship. This is where it’s important to remember to prioritize the long term goals and train the dog you have. We could have pushed through and “made it work” but what does that mean for the long term agility career I hope to have with Pan?
So what is the plan now? Knowing more about Pan’s reward system, way of learning, and sensitivity, we started agility training again this past week after Pan turned 7 months old. Loaded with a new set of training tools and knowledge, timing feels right and we are better prepared to handle the challenges that go along with training.
Does this mean we will never face similar struggles again? Who knows. It is just important to remember that no matter where any handler and dog team is in their training process, stepping away for
We made our way to Jacksonville for some fun teaching. Morning was early to beat the heat but man was it worth it! Every team did a fantastic job and dogs used their big brains all morning! Always love my time here and love working with such a great group of eager, ready to learn students. It also helps that we laugh….a lot. 😄 The dogs were very happy to spend some time playing in the pool. Pan has officially decided he’s a fish. 🐟
June 14 Foundation Friday
Really, the big #FoundationFriday win for this week is that retrieve. 🥹 That had been a very difficult skill for the Pan pup to grasp. 🤪 Other fun includes more wing wrap skills, starting to teach “go”, and then a sneak peak at some of our RDW foundation. 💜🖤
Foundation Friday
While #FoundationFriday was neglected, training has continued. Between travel, work, and life, our training sessions have not been as structured and the focus has been on some life skills. This week highlights the start of baby wing wraps, directionals, practicing patience while Captain works, and some handling games.
💜🖤
#BlackPanther
Week 10 Foundation Work
Back to our regularly scheduled #FoundationFriday with Black Panther!
While Captain America occupied most of my time last week, after returning home from WTT late Tuesday evening, this little shrimp got all of the attention. 💜🖤
We worked on some play with distractions from people and their dogs and then using our listening ears from a distance. We are working on retrieving toys and bringing them back but that continues to be a work in progress. 🙃 We also started building on body awareness, especially rear end awareness. 💪🏻
The big wins this week for #FoundationFriday weren’t captured on film (what a weird feeling using that “outdated” saying 🙊).
Independent skills and impulse control were the names of the game this week. Independent skills in just solidifying verbals, verbal discriminations, and going between sits and downs at a distance. Impulse control in the sense of not losing our mind when people or dogs are doing agility. Pan stayed out in a crate and watched while I taught lessons. He also worked on staying on a platform while his big brother was out AND a friend was playing agility. Other wins this week include swim lessons, learning about kiddie pools, traveling, and starting to lose those little teeth. 😬 🦷
Bonus video clip of Pan being the absolute cutest in a kiddie pool. 🙃
This week for #FoundationFriday, only 1 training session was filmed this week but it was a good one. 🤩
Training that is showcased includes learning some new leash manners and solidifying “where’s my dog”and “through”. Other important training wins not caught on tape included calmly watching agility while I teach, going out and about to new places, and practicing recalls at new places.
Catching the end of #FoundationFriday while we still can. 🙃
This week we learned “through” for leg wraps and started “where’s my dog” for new skills. Other than that we focused primarily on strengthening other skills and gaining some more verbal independence. We also started to really hone in on our listening ears and distinguishing between different commands. Stays were tested with more distance, outside distractions, and a toy to chase. This Pan puppy really is a smart one and loves to work/play.
Also, sneak peek of one of the most important life skills at the end. 😜
Week five of #FoundationFriday 💜🖤
Continuing to learn things, work on body awareness, and switching between toys and food. This week Pan learned a little bit more about his rear end with a couple of different exercises that will be important foundations for future skills. Also started working on following some house rules. Pan would like to know when he can go back to being just a crazy puppy instead of having to follow all of these rules. 😂
#FoundationFriday this week is more like #SkillsSaturday. 😂
We are a day behind posting but such is life sometimes. This week Pan started to learn about more rules. Highlighted are the starts of impulse control around the other dogs (and sometimes cats 🤪), “place”, and “stay”. Some independent “lefts” and “rights” just for fun thrown in.
This week could probably be considered #StaySaturday if I think about it? 🤔
It is time for another episode of #FoundationFriday and this week was a very fun and exciting week! 🤩
While new people, experiences, and environments are always a focus with puppy foundation work, the highlight reel really goes to some of the focus work we did.
Pan worked hard to focus on me and not some of the environmental distractions. Environmental distractions we worked through this week included a mower in a neighboring yard, roofing next door, and a leaf blower. We also included Captain America in our focus training, as Cap is Pan’s best bro and very exciting. Pan loves food so we did a lot of switching between food and toy play to help build value for both. Toward the end of the week, we started rear end awareness practice and Pan started to learn that he has back feet. 🖤💜
