Hannah was full of herself today. The biggest challenge was she was determined that she could bite and tug and mouth the LL, I was just as determined that she could NOT to such behavior. So, we had a bit of a struggle on who's determination would come out as the winner. Here's the score after nearly 45 minutes of solid Longe Line work with Hannah having to work against Boaz, Redd and Ace.
Roxanne 1
Jessi 1
Hannah 0
As it should be as you can't let a young, opinionated dog like Hannah ever believe she can assert herself and her opinions/behaviors. Anyway, then we did field work and Hannah had to watch the other dogs 'work', then she got a turn with the bumpers too.
 |
| Hannah is thinking "BUT I WANT TO CHARGE REDD," but the prior 34 minutes of LL has convinced her that is unwise. |
 |
| Hannah STILL wants to charge Redd, but opts instead to focus on her handler, Jessi. Boaz, Redd and Ace are all on Down/Stays as Planted Distractions during this training setup. |
Then, it was onward to my place and getting ready for our 1 pm Group Class. We did Planted Distractions (just exactly what was done at the soccer field with Boaz, Redd and Ace on Down/Stays, approximately 15' apart, as we worked Hannah THROUGH those dogs on Down/Stays. Took some doing, but she finally figured out that fixating on the other dogs was going to cost her another collar correction and the wise dog learns to ignore those distractions. Which she finally did ignore them.
BTW, if we didn't have trained dogs that 100% trusted us, we would NOT allow another dog to violate their space when on a Down/Stay, we couldn't do such excellent training work. But our dogs DO TRUST US, they know we will protect them and so they are able to maintain their Down/Stays despite the challenges issued by Hannah repetitively. As odd as it sounds, literally, we are using our trained dogs as 'bait' for an inexperienced dog to suck towards. We stage the setup, so the learning/inexperienced dog HAS to learn to say, "No way and I moving towards those dogs." But it can be a tough training situation and it takes our trained dogs knowing we got their backs, they ARE safe, for this type of training setup to be accomplished.
I worked Hannah for another 20 minutes before Jessi came for the Group Class.
Class was quite small today, but oh so excellent! Again, Jessi and I set up Planted Distractions and worked the dogs towards, through, behind and around those various Planted Distractions. What were the Planted Distractions? Wayne/Lulu, Jessi/Lulu, Sugar on a back tie by the gas pump, Kim/Kara, myself/Hannah, a small crate with a frozen dead duck in it, and at one point, me hauling a trash can around (which is major spooky for Kara). When it came time for Hannah she excelled. Man, I sure was grateful to see that as we were now at nearly 3+ hours of Hannah 'working' and she finally got it - "OH, the Safety Zone IS the comfortable place to be."
Finally, it was time for Group Class. Oh what fun that class was as I had multiple planted distractions.
Jessi/Lulu, Richard, Wayne, Sugar back tied, Kim/Kara, a dead duck in a crate AND myself.
 |
| Please note Hannah's EXCELLENT heel position. |
 |
| IMPORTANT PHOTO. See Jessi's knee with is doing the work with Hannah who wants to cross in front of Jessi. Jessi lets her knee do the communicating to train Hannah to maintain correct Heel position. |
 |
| No one except me is going to see what I see in this key photo. LOOK at Hannah's rear end right extension and her front right eg extension, they are BOTH fully extended. This is a sign of excellent conformation (structure). |
 |
| Super happy with this photo. Look closely, again you can see Hannah's leg extensions, but notice her PERFECT Heel position. Makes my heart skip a beat at this perfection! |
 |
| LOOK CLOSELY AT HANNAH'S HEAD. SHE KNOWS THAT DELICIOUS DEAD DUCK IS THERE, BUT OPTS TO IGNORE. THE EXTENSIVE LL WORK JESSI AND I ARE DOING IS PAYING OFF NICELY NOW. |
 |
| FINALLY, GREAT PHOTO. HANNAH IS WORKING THRU THIS TUNNEL OF SUGAR ON HER RIGHT SIDE AND MYSELF/LULU ON HER LEFT SIDE. SHE IS ALSO GOT HER HEAD TOWARDS JESSI WHICH IS THE MUCH DESIRED 'CHECK-IN'. SHE IS LEARNING. |
Lesson learned. For today at least-:)
No comments:
Post a Comment