Trying to give both dogs a couple of light days. I think Tor may have just a touch of Panno. His right front pastern area seems just a little sore. I haven't seen him do anything and he isn't limping but he has yelped a couple of times in the last 24 hours when my hand brushed that area. He's just growing so fast that Panno seems the obvious choice. However, it's not like he couldn't have tweaked it half a dozen times over the way he runs and plays :-) I'm not too worried about it but don't want to diminish his enthusiasm for playing with me so will take it a little easy.
Having said that, I am astounded at how quickly and easily he seems to be picking up on the leash pressure work. We've only done a few short sessions so far but he really seems to be getting it.
Stopped at MPSC on the way home from work. Let both dogs out to run around for a little while since no one was there. Both were enjoying just hanging out on a really beautiful day - hard to believe it is January. Have noticed that Tor doesn't always like new surfaces so instead of doing any real work out there we just took advantage of the available equipment. He got up on the picnic table, both of the training tables, and even went across the lower A-frame a couple of times :-) Once he realizes that it is OK he is fine but he doesn't like to get on things that first time. Will have to remember to keep asking him to get on/walk across weird stuff.
Did some position changes with Gata, primarily in a stationary heel position for food. Then did a few out of motions with a few short ball tosses. And that was it for her. Let them both wander around again for a little while and home early for a change.
Showing posts with label Position changes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Position changes. Show all posts
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Sunday mornings
I don't know exactly why but I have always loved Sunday mornings. It's a day where I can occasionally relax and enjoy watching the world go by a little. Things slow down, I'm not in a rush to get to work. I take my time with the dogs and usually have a very long outing with them at some point.
That's how it has been so far this morning. I took the dogs to the park, in the car, so I could control how much exercise each of them got. Both had a really nice long leisurely walk. Gata just had a few sessions of position changes and maybe 3 or 4 long throws. I did require that she work quietly though. If Gata starts work quietly she will usually stay that way. Sometimes she will quiet herself as we get going but her tendency in competition is to build and get noisier. Today she was pretty amped up just getting out of the car. So as we walked toward the field I asked her to heel. She took the basic position sitting at my side and was whining. I told her "No, quiet" and backed up. I told her heel again. Her silence earned her the ball. Did the same thing and took one step forward - she whined. I told her "No, quiet" and backed up. Gata doesn't like to back up in heeling position so this is a form of punishment for her. Plus, it takes her further away from where she wants to be - the field. Repeated successfully and gave her a short throw. Did the same thing with about 3 steps of heeling successfully and that was it for her heeling/"Silence" work for today. After that, she did her position changes quietly (normally quiet for these anyway) and that was it for any real training with her this morning.
Tor got quite a bit more work but in little increments. With him, I finally started the leash pressure stuff that Michael does. I'm not exactly sure that I am doing it right although the concept is pretty easy to understand. Tor seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly in the straight forward direction. It wasn't as easy for him when I tried it a little sideways. But I didn't really push it. I think this is a process that will take several days to a week to really get. I will be positively thrilled if it results in a dog that doesn't try to drag me around on a leash attached to his regular collar! I will also do this with Gata at some point in the future.
Also, went back to some basic obedience stuff with Tor today. Position changes in all different orientations to me, moving and stationary. Also continued to work on duration of his positions. His sit and down are going quite well but have neglected his stand in the different locations and really need to spend more time on that. Also did a little tiny bit of heeling stuff.
He was really good about everything. We switched easily between tug, balls, and food today and he worked well for everything.
That's how it has been so far this morning. I took the dogs to the park, in the car, so I could control how much exercise each of them got. Both had a really nice long leisurely walk. Gata just had a few sessions of position changes and maybe 3 or 4 long throws. I did require that she work quietly though. If Gata starts work quietly she will usually stay that way. Sometimes she will quiet herself as we get going but her tendency in competition is to build and get noisier. Today she was pretty amped up just getting out of the car. So as we walked toward the field I asked her to heel. She took the basic position sitting at my side and was whining. I told her "No, quiet" and backed up. I told her heel again. Her silence earned her the ball. Did the same thing and took one step forward - she whined. I told her "No, quiet" and backed up. Gata doesn't like to back up in heeling position so this is a form of punishment for her. Plus, it takes her further away from where she wants to be - the field. Repeated successfully and gave her a short throw. Did the same thing with about 3 steps of heeling successfully and that was it for her heeling/"Silence" work for today. After that, she did her position changes quietly (normally quiet for these anyway) and that was it for any real training with her this morning.
Tor got quite a bit more work but in little increments. With him, I finally started the leash pressure stuff that Michael does. I'm not exactly sure that I am doing it right although the concept is pretty easy to understand. Tor seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly in the straight forward direction. It wasn't as easy for him when I tried it a little sideways. But I didn't really push it. I think this is a process that will take several days to a week to really get. I will be positively thrilled if it results in a dog that doesn't try to drag me around on a leash attached to his regular collar! I will also do this with Gata at some point in the future.
Also, went back to some basic obedience stuff with Tor today. Position changes in all different orientations to me, moving and stationary. Also continued to work on duration of his positions. His sit and down are going quite well but have neglected his stand in the different locations and really need to spend more time on that. Also did a little tiny bit of heeling stuff.
He was really good about everything. We switched easily between tug, balls, and food today and he worked well for everything.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Progress & Complications
Tor's program of outing more and more different tug toys in different places seems to be paying off. He is starting to see tug as more of a 2-participant game now rather than a game that he has to win all the time. He's starting to do his positions for a tug reward and the speed of them is almost up to what it is with food. So that's all good.
The weird thing that I've noticed with Tor is that after training sessions that are quieter and calmer, as opposed to "all on", where I spend a significant amount of time petting him, stroking his face, etc. he is immensely more possessive of me when we get home. He is pesky and willing to take on Gata to try to get closer to me. This is the second or third time that I've seen this with him. Today we were working on some down stays. I would return to him and stroke his face (rather than giving him treats which I didn't have) and then reward with the tug. To finish up our exercise session this evening we went for a nice walk around the park that we visited. Since he was pretty tired by then we stopped a few times to just chill out and I would just pet him and talk to him during those times. He is an absolute pain in the butt at home this evening.
I know it sounds like he is starved for attention but, honestly, he gets lots of attention. He's a very affectionate boy so it is easy to give him lots of attention. Yes, I have to balance it out with Gata in mind but he really does get plenty of attention. Plus, it seems like it is only about the attention that he gets during a work session or outing that counts. I can spend more time playing with him at home or let him out of the x-pen for longer and I don't see the same thing. I can't really explain it but it's definitely real ...
Anyway, both dogs had fun this afternoon. Tor ran retrieves and played tug for 2 different toys - a linen tug and a jute frisbee. He did well with both and was able to switch back and forth between tugs and ball easily. His positions for a tug are definitely improving. Most of his outs were very good. Maybe 10% were slow or required a second command. Definite improvement.
Gata practiced long send outs on the park field. I sent her to a sign in the middle of the field. Played around with timing and direction of the throw. Some after the down and either behind her or beyond me. Behind her to emphasize that she could keep going; beyond me to give her that opportunity to really sprint that she seems to love. I also marked and threw the ball past her a couple of times on the run out when she was running well. She has a beautiful send out but once she knows a location she starts to anticipate the down. This seemed to work well today but we'll have to see what happens in the future. In the past when I have messed up her send out, she would turn to look at me and occasionally spin on the run out. Will keep my eyes peeled for any of that stuff.
Finally, they are both quiet :-)
The weird thing that I've noticed with Tor is that after training sessions that are quieter and calmer, as opposed to "all on", where I spend a significant amount of time petting him, stroking his face, etc. he is immensely more possessive of me when we get home. He is pesky and willing to take on Gata to try to get closer to me. This is the second or third time that I've seen this with him. Today we were working on some down stays. I would return to him and stroke his face (rather than giving him treats which I didn't have) and then reward with the tug. To finish up our exercise session this evening we went for a nice walk around the park that we visited. Since he was pretty tired by then we stopped a few times to just chill out and I would just pet him and talk to him during those times. He is an absolute pain in the butt at home this evening.
I know it sounds like he is starved for attention but, honestly, he gets lots of attention. He's a very affectionate boy so it is easy to give him lots of attention. Yes, I have to balance it out with Gata in mind but he really does get plenty of attention. Plus, it seems like it is only about the attention that he gets during a work session or outing that counts. I can spend more time playing with him at home or let him out of the x-pen for longer and I don't see the same thing. I can't really explain it but it's definitely real ...
Anyway, both dogs had fun this afternoon. Tor ran retrieves and played tug for 2 different toys - a linen tug and a jute frisbee. He did well with both and was able to switch back and forth between tugs and ball easily. His positions for a tug are definitely improving. Most of his outs were very good. Maybe 10% were slow or required a second command. Definite improvement.
Gata practiced long send outs on the park field. I sent her to a sign in the middle of the field. Played around with timing and direction of the throw. Some after the down and either behind her or beyond me. Behind her to emphasize that she could keep going; beyond me to give her that opportunity to really sprint that she seems to love. I also marked and threw the ball past her a couple of times on the run out when she was running well. She has a beautiful send out but once she knows a location she starts to anticipate the down. This seemed to work well today but we'll have to see what happens in the future. In the past when I have messed up her send out, she would turn to look at me and occasionally spin on the run out. Will keep my eyes peeled for any of that stuff.
Finally, they are both quiet :-)
Monday, January 10, 2011
Weekend Warriors
Started out the day with a nice walk to the park, a few throws (how can the 2 of them lose the ball when neither of them ever loses a ball alone) and then some tracking. Met a friend down in San Jose near the airport. The grass is definitely longer and rougher than anything we've tracked so far this year. Early morning, plenty of moisture, wind is very mild, temp in the low 40s. Ground is pretty hard though. So conditions are moderately difficult overall.
Tor - roughly 100 paces, evenly spaced through 3 legs, left turn and a right turn. Grass made it difficult not smooth, very patchy and ground underneath was pretty hard. I didn't make it any easier by having my footsteps too long. He did well but definitely not his best track to date. I need to remember that he is just getting started and make things easier for him when the conditions warrant it. He has plenty of time to learn what he needs.
Very pleased by the way he handled having Vic around with us. Payed no attention to him walking alongside me while we were tracking and said a relatively friendly, polite hello as we walked back to the car. Confident and social but not overly friendly - perfect.
Gata - roughly 250 paces, serpentines early, technical turns to end, 4 articles. Worked all directions. Tracking was good, nose deep, mostly footstep to footstep, but a little fast. Wanted to walk the articles. Not surprised by that given it was her first track in deeper grass. Was ready for the first article. I lost the second article and she totally walked it. Third article was OK. Fourth article was good. Need to do better than that. Have to figure out how to mark the articles so she can't walk them in the next few weeks while we make the transition to grass. Transition to grass is a difficult time with her.
Afternoon session for each dog consisted of just fun stuff at the park for both of them.
Tor: Position changes starting out with food rewards to build the speed and fluency, switching to tug/ball to start the transition to toys, and ending on food to reinforce the positions and speed. He thought this was great fun. Also did some hand touches. Have done those previously but this time I had food in one hand and made him touch the other hand and then get the food from the other hand to reward him. He has a hard time working away from the reward and has a very low threshold for frustration so this is very hard for him. He did well though and was getting it pretty well by the time we finished. Then a few long play retrieves and he was done.
Gata: Did some Agility distance work again. She thinks this is great fun and loves to jump the pots with these big, long cross-country style bounds. It's really wonderful to watch - she is such a graceful jumper. Alternated those with a few sets of positions for food reward. She also had a great time.
Got home and the dogs zonked out for the evening. I think Tor was well and truly exhausted for the first time since he came to stay with us :-) It only took 3 days in a row of really significant physical work ;-) Just think how much fun it will be to wear him out when he is a fully mature dog - YIKES!
Tor - roughly 100 paces, evenly spaced through 3 legs, left turn and a right turn. Grass made it difficult not smooth, very patchy and ground underneath was pretty hard. I didn't make it any easier by having my footsteps too long. He did well but definitely not his best track to date. I need to remember that he is just getting started and make things easier for him when the conditions warrant it. He has plenty of time to learn what he needs.
Very pleased by the way he handled having Vic around with us. Payed no attention to him walking alongside me while we were tracking and said a relatively friendly, polite hello as we walked back to the car. Confident and social but not overly friendly - perfect.
Gata - roughly 250 paces, serpentines early, technical turns to end, 4 articles. Worked all directions. Tracking was good, nose deep, mostly footstep to footstep, but a little fast. Wanted to walk the articles. Not surprised by that given it was her first track in deeper grass. Was ready for the first article. I lost the second article and she totally walked it. Third article was OK. Fourth article was good. Need to do better than that. Have to figure out how to mark the articles so she can't walk them in the next few weeks while we make the transition to grass. Transition to grass is a difficult time with her.
Afternoon session for each dog consisted of just fun stuff at the park for both of them.
Tor: Position changes starting out with food rewards to build the speed and fluency, switching to tug/ball to start the transition to toys, and ending on food to reinforce the positions and speed. He thought this was great fun. Also did some hand touches. Have done those previously but this time I had food in one hand and made him touch the other hand and then get the food from the other hand to reward him. He has a hard time working away from the reward and has a very low threshold for frustration so this is very hard for him. He did well though and was getting it pretty well by the time we finished. Then a few long play retrieves and he was done.
Gata: Did some Agility distance work again. She thinks this is great fun and loves to jump the pots with these big, long cross-country style bounds. It's really wonderful to watch - she is such a graceful jumper. Alternated those with a few sets of positions for food reward. She also had a great time.
Got home and the dogs zonked out for the evening. I think Tor was well and truly exhausted for the first time since he came to stay with us :-) It only took 3 days in a row of really significant physical work ;-) Just think how much fun it will be to wear him out when he is a fully mature dog - YIKES!
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