Monday, August 23, 2010

08-23-2010

Just because we haven't blogged it doesn't mean we haven't been training. Okay, we haven't been training enough. I decided that Duece doesn't like the aggressive indication and we won't be changing it as earlier stated. Duece likes to sit at the find and we're going to leave it at that.
One of the problems we've had is when Duece finds the hide, he looks at me for the treat which is okay unless he finds it where he can't see me. I had been purposely falling back away from him when I know he is close to the hide. For awhile he would look around and if I wasn't there he wouldn't indicate and would continue searching.
We went back and did some easy searching and I stayed back a little and would tell him to sit and stay when he was right on the hide. This worked until he got bored.
This evening I put out two hides and stayed out of his sight when I knew he was close. On the first one he did a perfect indication and sat down, looked around and when he saw I wasn't there he got up and headed towards me. I started the praise as soon as he headed my way and encouraged him to "show me" and he went back and sat at the hide. He got his treat and lots of praise. We played a little and then I gave him his command again and got him to start searching again.
I let him circle wherever he wanted unless he paid too much attention to the cat or the neighbors pasture. He got down wind of the 2nd hide and went with the wind for distance and then circled back into the wind to where the hide was placed. This time I was in his sight but about 50 yards away. He did a really nice indication and stayed there once he realized I was on the way to reward him. He got lots of praise, his treat and we rolled around and played for awhile. He got praise and encouragement all the way back to the house and he was pretty proud of himself. (I was pretty proud of him too!)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

05-01-2010

Duece & I attended NASDN spring seminar and although we didn't get any pictures of Duece training we did get a cell phone video of him searching the barracks bay for his ball.

Turn your sound down as I give him a very loud and animated praise when he is returning with the ball.










We learned a lot at the seminar and are changing the way Duece indicates on his cadaver find and how he is rewarded - lots of praise and then the treat once he gets back to the vehicle. It seems to be working.


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Sunday, January 10, 2010

01-10-2010

Almost 2 months without blogging! We slacked off on the training but haven't stopped. Duece has done some work in the basement during the cold weather and we've done some out in the snow as well. We've had some trouble in the basement but it was due to the fan used on the treadmill. Duece worked it out once I didn't believe his indication and he couldn't "Show me!"

This evening we put out two separate scent sources which is something new here at home. After he found the first one and got his treat reward, he was given his command together with an 'arm sweep' and it confused him a little. He went back to the one he had just found a couple of times. Once he worked his way downwind of the second scent he did well and worked out an indication in the soft snow and where it wasn't easy to do a sit & down at the scent.

We're back at agility boot camp at the GF Kennel Club to work on some confidence building. We've been trying to get Duece to climb a step ladder and he isn't too sure about it as it isn't solid enough and moves around a little. We're working on it.