Social

Tuesday he oscillated between awful and awesome in less than twelve hours. On our morning walk he went into abso-frigging-lutely hysterical RED alert at the very sight of a woman approaching down the road, and by the time she had passed we were both exhausted.

Then as we’ve just entered our driveway, some 2-3 minutes later, the garbage truck pulls up. “Oh, shit,” I think, “here comes trigger stacking!”

… but it doesn’t. Fenris just plops down on his butt about 20 meters away to watch the garbage man come out, do his thing, and then drive off. Curiosity, interest – but no terror. (Let’s not talk about _my_ stress levels though.)

My meeting in the evening was postponed, so Fenris amazed me at…

Obedience and courses

… the obedience course! A few minutes of my two group-mates tossing treats at him, and Fenris wagged his tail at new friends. Sniff a few seconds, removed him, and then they were ok. He still worried if they made big movements (like one of them striding off to get her dog when my turn was over; Fenris stiffened and lifted the tail-root), but otherwise he was on excellent behaviour.

Peak? 5 meter trailing leash recall right past those other people. He was happy and eager, and I felt safe attempting it.

In addition we did some jumps and leg weaves to up the fun-quota (as per our trick-teacher’s suggestion – she also specialises in canine confidence), we did holds (and the others suggested I just let him drop the dummy on the ground at the click, to reward holding rather than handing over), we did focus (oh, that was hard! but 4 seconds), we did come-to-heel (and entered a nerdy conversation about Tucked Sits), we demonstrated foot-work to cue the difference between stand and sit at heel (aparantly it’s uncommon for the basic cue to end in a stand, and there were delighted squeals of “he KNOWS that!” when he popped through position changes in response to my leg positions. Yay! Good boy! Mummy likes praise too!).

And we got more praise; one of my group-mates had met Fenris briefly before – almost half a year ago – and she said he was a very different dog now! It may be hard for me to see in the middle of it – particularly the times he DOES trigger – but there is improvement that others can see.

Sit-Down – he wasn’t so keen on that on the gravel+ice training grounds, and I didn’t really care to press the issue. Another time.

Kickback – is a step-back rather than a jump-back, but that’s a fine point that’s more pretty than useful.

Next on that course, in two weeks, we’ll work on people being able to take steps towards us. I helped others with their dogs on that – and though their difficulties were different (“I want to jump up and greet those people!!!!”) – the training was much the same. Step by step, rewarding for refocusing on handler.

Steps to Success

Come 2 – ‘Here’ vs tractor failed. He was so over-aroused he didn’t even notice treats. If he hears me, he comes.

Lazy Leash 2 – Monday meh outside. The tractor had him so hyped, that the rest of the morning walk was a mess. The other days were better – and we have to be careful with wintery thing.

Target 2 – Wall target is GOOD!

Handling 2 – He let me check his hind paws. I was a bit concerned because he put up his front paws but refused to jump up with the rest of him, in the car last night, and I had to help him up in the end. But it might have just been a desire to play longer and not go home. Session today checking lips, eyes, ears, feet. Lips are still a bit hard, but we’re getting there.

Tricks

Trying to introduce the Show Belly / Roll over. Lots of waving paws, but some success when I put him into Play Dead first, then sit behind his back out of reach of his front paws.