Stand

I was feeling lazy today. Woke up late at 11:16 and skipped my first class to hobo at home.

For our morning one hour walk, Pupper and I did some playground equipment for fun. She tried climbing up a slanted smooth plastic board with just a few plastic knobs in for grip. Her front paws were on, but she didn't put her hind legs up. I didn't have treats with me so I couldn't do more encouragement up the board. Will bring treats for next time to encourage her to climb all the way up. I think this would help improve her hind-end awareness. She is always eager to investigate and bat around her front paws, but rarely moves her back paws. For instance, when we were first learning the "table" command, she would only put her front paws up. In "perch", she can put her front paws on the basin every time, but doesn't want to move her back legs at all. This is definitely an area that I want to work more at, and would welcome all back-end awareness exercise recommendations. Pupper used to be leary of the big swings that this park has, and would back up every time I moved the swing. They look like big plastic woks with 4 chains, so she was in her right mind to want to avoid being hit by one of these. However, today, after about 2 weeks away from the swing, she approached it confidently and even came up to investigate when I saw on the swing and moved it. Today was also the first time she jumped over 1 meter down and landed on wood chips. We went down the slide like usual, me first with the leash loose behind for her to follow. Instead of sliding, she jumped out of the slide. I don't want to encourage this behavior to avoid injury and stress to her growing joints, and will be avoiding curvy slides that encourage her to jump from now on. She is very brave with equipment, and this has transferred into going through agility equipment in class. I'm thankful that I did at least this ONE part of her upbringing right.

Our evening walk was a standard 1.5 walk with a leashed component through the neighborhood and school, and an off-leash component at the tennis court. For our off-leash time, I reinforced her stay, heel, down, and sit, and am in the process of shaping a fetch. We've made some progress in the fetch. She has gone from running around the court avoiding me at all costs after getting the ball, to coming back to me 70% of the time for a treat. She was very hungry this session, so that might have something to do with it. When she isn't driving right back after she reaches the ball, a quick "puppy" usually brings her back. My goal is to reward both of these actions every time. When bringing the ball back happens more consistently (80% or more), I'll cue it up. Right now, I say "go get it", but I think it's just gibberish to her.

Right before bed, I tried teaching "stand" per Susan Garrett's video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nyGRu6DQ7U0.

I followed Susan's steps, and started with some tugging to engage her. I worked with about 10 pieces of cheese at a time, moving through the steps. When I ran out of food, I say break and either tug or use the flirt pole for 15-30 seconds, then put away the toy to resume work. We've gotten to target the hand that's slightly behind her head so she has to jump up and land into a stand. Pupper does this 60% of the time. I'll be trying again tomorrow so the sessions stay short and fun. One of the things that I am having trouble with is the video calls for treating while the dog is stationary. Puppy moves around to get to the treat. I think this is a function of my poor treat delivery.

I really enjoy teaching her and playing with her, and am constantly browsing youtube and websites for easy games/tricks that I could work on with her. I try to keep sessions short and fun, with lots of play in between.

All the great positive things we're doing aside, we're still facing challenges in the following issues:

1. Dog reactivity
2. Ear glue crusts

Just emailed a trainer to see if I could make a 1 v 1 over reading week to come up with a plan.

All told, it was a good day for the pup. I read 5 chapters of auditing, so I guess it's a good day for me as well. :D