Picnic trial tomorrow, general progress
Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:52 pm
I'm going to run Ki in the local retriever club's picnic trial tomorrow. Little nervous because neither one of us has trialed before, but I think he's got all the tools he'll need to do the tests. Pretty sure it's just a JH type setup, but not sure. Maybe there will be different levels. In any case it's just for experience and I'm keeping hopes high but expectations low. My biggest concern is that he'll get too excited and parade the bird a bit on his retrieves. He wandered some the other day when we trained on birds after nothing but bumpers for a few weeks, but just on his first couple. Keeping on him with the whistle seemed to get him back in line. We did some table work with a duck yesterday, then took it to the yard this morning and he did well.
Also made it an opportunity to work on his whistle sits, which have been sloppy. He is VERY attentive to the bird, so I was able to have him stay, place it in the yard so he knew where it was, then move around the yard and whistle recall and sit him on different angles toward, across and away from the bird. He only got sucked to the bird once, but I was able to break him away from it with a "NO. HERE." He was still sloppy with some of his sits, so I wouldn't reward him with an over or back to the bird until he nailed a couple in a row. He seems to be getting the idea and I've been reinforcing it with whistle sits while heeling as a way for him to get that tweet means "SIT NOW." As we walk I'll give a tweet and immediately whack his ass to get it down. After a few of those he sits quick, and then I tweet and keep walking. Takes a couple more whacks and he gets that he's to sit even if I don't stop. A tap from a heeling stick works when he starts to backslide.
In the past week or so he's really come around in terms of OB and general attentiveness. I spent the better part of last week at a beach house with extended family and did hardly anything retrieve related, but took the opportunity to have everyone help me tune up his OB and people manners. I got everyone to agree not to touch or praise him until he sat, and stayed sitting, for them. He also spent hours playing with and being handled by my 10 yo niece. She rides horses and has a lot of confidence, so she did a good job. After a week of all that, he's now far more polite and actually more tuned in to me, less apt to wander off to the neighbors' yards, keeps closer and recalls faster on walks. It's like he's turned the corner from puppy to dog and has a good sense of his place and what's expected of him.
Anyway, he's in a stage where he's eager to work, we're making good progress and hoping to avoid significant setbacks. I'll report back on how things go tomorrow.
Also made it an opportunity to work on his whistle sits, which have been sloppy. He is VERY attentive to the bird, so I was able to have him stay, place it in the yard so he knew where it was, then move around the yard and whistle recall and sit him on different angles toward, across and away from the bird. He only got sucked to the bird once, but I was able to break him away from it with a "NO. HERE." He was still sloppy with some of his sits, so I wouldn't reward him with an over or back to the bird until he nailed a couple in a row. He seems to be getting the idea and I've been reinforcing it with whistle sits while heeling as a way for him to get that tweet means "SIT NOW." As we walk I'll give a tweet and immediately whack his ass to get it down. After a few of those he sits quick, and then I tweet and keep walking. Takes a couple more whacks and he gets that he's to sit even if I don't stop. A tap from a heeling stick works when he starts to backslide.
In the past week or so he's really come around in terms of OB and general attentiveness. I spent the better part of last week at a beach house with extended family and did hardly anything retrieve related, but took the opportunity to have everyone help me tune up his OB and people manners. I got everyone to agree not to touch or praise him until he sat, and stayed sitting, for them. He also spent hours playing with and being handled by my 10 yo niece. She rides horses and has a lot of confidence, so she did a good job. After a week of all that, he's now far more polite and actually more tuned in to me, less apt to wander off to the neighbors' yards, keeps closer and recalls faster on walks. It's like he's turned the corner from puppy to dog and has a good sense of his place and what's expected of him.
Anyway, he's in a stage where he's eager to work, we're making good progress and hoping to avoid significant setbacks. I'll report back on how things go tomorrow.