Saturday Class with the Boys

This morning was Flex's Advanced Beginner's class and then we ran a Snooker course at Fun & Games. My goal with Flex this morning was to work on his focus and attention on me rather than sniffing and paying attention to everyone else. We spent a lot of time doing mat work and I was asking him for eye contact. He complied most of the time. I also worked on the go sniff game so that he would learn that he will be rewarded for paying attention to me. This was the first time for him on this game so it is still a work in progress. By the end of class I had pretty good focus on me and when I sent him to sniff he started to come back very quickly. He did well on most of the sets, except the weaves which were a struggle again. We need to practice his weaves in other places besides the living room so he can translate this skill.

During the snooker run Gus handled like a dream! He was super attuned to my body language and followed my plan exactly. I even got a couple of weaves out of him! He was a remarkably calm while waiting for his turn. He would occasionally look at the other dogs who were running and then check back in with me. He did not lunge or bark. He was calm and let me do the t-touch on him. He has made tremendous progress in just a few short weeks.

When it was Gus' turn he was pretty calm at the start line and cleared the first jump! We took the red jump at the right of the diagram and then went over jump 4. I pulled him to the left over the red jump that was net to it and sent him into the left hand side of the tunnel by doing a rear cross (RC) there. I then pulled him around to send him out of the last red jump. I wrapped him him to the his left around that jump and then sent him into the tunnel again. Once he came out of the tunnel I turned him around and sent him back into the tunnel to start the closing. He shot out of the tunnel and i was able to pull him with me over jump three and easily around to four. He hit the Aframe hard and I was on his left so as he came off the frame I sent him over the first jump of the number 6 combo and rear crossed him there. He easily did the pinwheel with out me being into the middle of the pinwheel. He also pulled around to the 3rd jump very nicely and headed to the weaves. He hit the entry and then bypassed the rest of the poles. I called him back and though he missed the entry this time he did about 6 poles with correct footwork. We called this a success and left the course.

Gus and Flex Update

Wow! What a week. I have been super busy and have neglected to post for almost 7 days! Anyway I am making progress with both dogs on this new training regime.

On Saturday I took Flex to his Advanced Beginner's class and our goal was to work on his focus on me rather than everything else. It was a bit of a struggle at first but he settled in and did much better by the 3rd set. I forgot to bring the mat so we had to just work on laying down on the ground. I have been working hard on getting him to look me in the face since this has been a struggle for him since the day I brought him home. He is now freely offering eye contact when he is laying on his mat. After Flexi's class I spent about 10 minutes working with Gus while we waited for our turn during the Fun Run. He was having a tough time even though we were at least 40 feet away from the equipment and action. After Flex's run, i took Gus out and worked on some TTouch with him. OMG what a difference that made. We went to the line and I had a very calm Gus. I still had someone hold him (to minimize the stress) and he ran ok. Wouldn't weave and knocked a bunch of bars, but he paid attention to me and was not trying to bit me on course.

We continued to work on the ttouch and mat work through the weekend. Then Monday night I took Gus to Handler's Class and he was bananas at first. We spent a lot of time working on his down while waiting for others. He got better by the end of the night. We then worked on being quiet while I taught the Masters class. We made some small progress.

Then Tuesday I took Gus to Billie's for the Control Unleashed class. He was soooo much better this week than last. He was able to walk around the equipment and focus on me. He would look at the tunnels and jumps and then focus back on me. It was impressive. Others commented on his progress.