The overview is long – but that’s mostly because we’re working a plethora of little skills that all intersect with each other.

Review September:

People – Started talking to people about getting ‘strangers’ to help us out in controlled circumstances. We’ll see what comes of it.

Harness – No amount of ice cream will entice a kid to wear a scratchy jumper (for long) – and no amount of cheese will alleviate an obviously uncomfortable harness. I may give it one or two more shots, but I’m thinking that if he still growls after many months of desensitising, something is obviously not right with it.

Anti-guarding – A little here and there; socks, a mat, adults vs children.

Good stuff – he sleeps more and better. He walks nicely on leash most of the time. He loves playing still, even as he is approaching adulthood.

Agility/Rally – thanks to the general lock down over this virus thing, we have done nothing with the agility. I haven’t checked, but I think the October competition is also cancelled, in any case we aren’t even close to what I’d like for an entry. (Although, being an anxious perfectionist, I should probably define for myself what ‘good enough’ looks like, or we could be polishing for months and years before I take a leap of faith.)

Skills:

• Heeling – His synchronisation is perking up both in right and left turns, and straights.
• Pivots – Right side is there, but not half as good as the other.
• Wrapping a cone – I’m starting to think there is some clarity on Wrap/Counter, because when he gets his long leash wrapped around a tree, I can indicate the direction he needs to take – and he gets it right most of the time.
• Zen 2 – been slacking. Needs more constant maintenance.
• Sit 2 – currently at about 35 seconds before he tries lying down. A nice practice while doing kitchen work.
• Down 2 – 1 min ok and tested
• Settle 2 – 1 min ok. Settle/Excite has been worked up to 20 sec.
• Crate 2 – goes in, lies down, 30 sec ok.
• Mat 2 – Pick a flat item, even as small as a folded out napkin, cue mat, he goes and lies down on it.
• Come 2 – I find him to be consistent even outside at 15 meters. I’m not sure any family members have tried it much – beyond as games between two people. This implies no distractions other than basic nature, of course. I was going to say I never let him completely off leash outside – it’s always trailing, so I at least have a few meters of ‘grace’ – but sometimes shit happens. And if the distraction then is a bird – or the neighbour’s pizza box trash with leftover bacon pizza – I no longer exist in his world. (Because guess what wins in a fight; stray bacon pizza, or mum with leash and fish cake…) When the bird was gone, he returned – but I had to go collect him from the pizza. Evil mum is evil.
• Focus 2 – 10 seconds inside is not a problem. I do need to take the leap from ‘totally distraction free’ to ‘competing influences’, if I want the exercise to mean something, so I have just started on working outside (with mostly failure) and inside with minor treat distractions (even that was hard).
• Target 2 – Yes, but no? He is perfectly fine with touching a post-it note on an object, but when the cabinet door moved, he was obviously Concerned. I’ll have to have a thinky-time about how to make this less worrisome for him.

Stress signal! Lowered tail first, hesitant movement – then yawn and stretch when the door popped closed! Good Boi for telling mum that this was difficult. And Good Mum for reading him right.

Tricks

This was fun to start with, and is fun to do in between. Basic ‘home-obedience’ (stays and loose leash walking and settles and such) can get kind of boring, and super focused rally and competition style obedience (heeling, and such) can get very mentally taxing for the dog. Doing some Spin/Twist (different cues – different directions), leg weaves, jumping over legs, high fives and Sit Pretty keeps him happy and keeps an attitude of play to our work. They are even good for training suppleness and core strength!

Plan October:

• Come 2 – Step 5; adding distractions and increasing what the family can accomplish
• Lazy Leash 2 – Continue step 1 (collar pressure), step 2.e (move a short distance while tossing treat), and 2.f (movement after he’s eaten so he can see it and work to keep pace). I keep thinking he can do this already, but when I test by standing still outside after tossing the treat, he continues movement instead of checking where I actually am.
• Focus 2 – Increasing outdoors /distraction work.
• Target 2 – Work on the closing door part.
• Zen 2 – Step 5 stuff lying on the floor already. Such as shoes and toys and food. Also continue with dishwasher… (though I fear it may be one of those things where the temptation will always outweigh what we can provide, and cueing an alternate behaviour such as Sit is better).
• Tricks – whatever strikes our fancy!
• Distance 2 and Jump 2 in ‘Steps to Success’ is basically moving away from me around a cone and over a small jump. This should be really easy for Fenris, but the final part of Distance is ‘the dog walks through a door in front of you and turns to face you while you are still on the original side’. That could be more challenging.
• Relax 2 is not quite done – we want to work him up to Settle for 1 minute, play a little, settle again a minute, play, and settle for a final minute. He can swap behaviours a couple of times with 20 sec settles, and he can do a single settle 60 seconds. We just have to have the patience to put them together.
• Handling 2 in ‘Steps to Success’ is new and although we have done a little bit of husbandry work, I suspect this will take some time. Like the Lazy Leash, we will just have to progress this one at Fenris’ pace.

L2 Handling Step 1 – The dog allows you to touch her head, tail, and feet.
L2 Handling Step 2 – The dog allows you to handle her ears, muzzle and feet. L2 Handling Step 3 – The dog allows you to brush her ears, muzzle, body, feet, and tail. L2 Handling Step 4 – Dog allows clippers, pills, thermometer and tooth brush. L2 Handling Step 5 – The dog allows herself to be pushed and prodded.

Training Levels Steps to Success, by Sue Ailsby – index page

• We have a starting understanding of changing side behind me; backup a step, move to hand touch on other side. It’s a cute trick that’s going to be useful in Rally, down the line. I’d like to polish it a little, making sure he understands.
• Steps to Success, at level 2, also includes a chapter on Tricks (where you basically work out your own plan to teach a trick of some sort) which is not all that different from what we’re doing anyway, and Communication 2 (which includes things like the dog backing out of your personal space and untangling the leash from his paw). I’ll be looking at these later in the month, but we’ll see how much we really need to focus on them.

In Awesome Obedience:

• Continue heeling Cone-to-Cone, varying directions and movements and setups.
• Heads-up heeling with focus
• Get back to Tucked Sit
• Start the Forward Stand
• Revisit Lateral (aka Sideways) movement
• Get fluency in halts/forward motion.
• Revisit Right Pivots

Week 40:

We do the LL daily, really, but putting it in the plan reminds me to work it a little inside as well.

exercise	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Week-end
Awesome Heeling	Cone-to-Cone	Tucked Sit	TS	CtC	TS
Focus	heeling	treats	outside	heeling	treats	outside
Home-obedience	Lazy Leash	Zen Traps	Recall and Distractions	LL	ZT	R and D
Steps to Success	Target Distance	D Settle	S T	T D	D S	S

Week 41:

• Lazy Leash, Zen, Recalls and Focus run through the whole month. This week we will also work on
• Distance
• Settle
• Start Jumps
• Lateral Movements

Week 42

• The usual and
• Forward Stand
• Jump
• Handling
• Right Pivots

Week 43

• The usual and
• Handling
• Tricks
• Communication
• Heeling: Halts and forward movement

Week 44 is short but:

• The usual and
• Tucked Sit
• Handling
• Communication
• Mop-up and Cold Tests