and week 14 of 2020

Review of March:

Obedience

TEAM 1, exercise 2. He has the technical skills. We aren’t quite where I want regarding his stamina, yet, though. Keeping his attention and engagement throughout the process is going to be more of a challenge than expected.

Canis Foundations – I think this is the only part where I’ve been really consistent. There is always something new to do, or a new way to do something old. Pivoting and heel position are big parts of the TEAM work, walking with his nose up can be done for a few minutes and a handful of treats anywhere inside or outside (maxing at 4-5 steps at best), his Stands and Stand-stays are getting better. We have successful use and progress in the new platform, both as a wobbly surface, and a still place for position changes. He manages stands at about a meter, before his front paws creep off.

Awesome obedience – toys and toy rewards are an ongoing process, which is going to need a lot more work. I saw a mention on instagram of practicing ‘engaging with the toy I have, rather than the one you’d prefer’, and I’ve tried it once, and will continue that work. A tip from a Q&A podcast with Hannah Branigan (patreon members session) suggested turning sideways to encourage toy-release, and having a VERY clear difference in ‘animation’ between tugging and non-tugging. After one session, Fenris seemed to catch on to the idea, so I’m definitely continuing there.

Scent work – Just a couple of sessions, focusing on targeting, rather than recognising for the time being.

Social skills and Daily Life

See – even if he’s out of sight for a moment, he reacts to this one! I’m very impressed. It’ll still need loads of practice to penetrate Sniff-mode, but he’s absolutely on the right track.

Social, walks, settles outside, etc. – Well, life changed for everyone. Suddenly I’m no longer doing the regular morning walks, so walk-skills are not as prioritised. We avoid driving places, so almost zero formal socialisation outings.

Project Buttons – No real progress. He has a few favourites, but he’s not moving on to combinations, or using names or things like that. Often he’ll click a button that is just on the side of the one he likely wants instead. On the other hand, we haven’t done much modelling lately either, so it’s there – but not in focus. A few times he’s pressed Iris’ name. I thought it was just a miss for the nearby chew, but he sometimes seems to try to process that I say where Iris is, so I’m not entirely sure. Perhaps he’s starting to figure something out.

Handling – his front nails are more or less under control. We brush a couple of times a week, and he’s good with it. I can touch his mouth and face for a few seconds, most days. All practice is good practice.

Agility

The hurdles are bought and introduced, and we have a definite understanding of using the Target Stick at the end of a couple of jumps. We have practiced Wrap and Counter, we have practiced (somewhat – distributing walks means this, too, is less focused) footwork, and occasionally practiced To Me vs Away. The wobble board is introduced and we have had a few sessions early in March working on it.

Plan of April

Social, Steps to Success and Life skills

I want to continue working on picking up feet on command, touching hind feet, and building up to doing his hind nails. When I walk him, I will continue building his life skills – See, Free, settling/relaxing, and some more leash skills wouldn’t be amiss. I also want to work on the formal Watch command.

We also want to continue training the vacuum cleaner (daily preferred).

Obedience

The next TEAM 1 exercise – 3 – is Front on a platform, and finding Front from up to 2 meters away both ahead and an angle. I’ll have to check the videos for how they set up the progress, and my single (small!) dog-expense this month is probably going to be the TEAM registration (Gratitude in difficult times: husband having a safe job with guaranteed income.). We haven’t focused on Fronts at all, so this will be new and interesting. I can’t imagine it will be very hard – since we are using the full plank platform for it. (Later; cue, fade plank to chin target.)

I did a tiny intro to Fronts the other night, when he was at his most eager. Our main task looks to be getting a Tucked Sit (so he comes close), rather than a Rock Back Sit (the ‘normal’ version where the front paws move backwards). Apart from that, I think it’ll be good. I’ll make myself a clear step-by-step itemised list of todo’s, so I can get the first three TEAM exercises chained and practised.

In Awesome Obedience we’ll continue working on the toy, but also dive deeper into Go Outs and Jumping, and recap position changes on the platform.

CANIS foundations

• Weeks one and two; two days each of Bark, Crawl, Contact other,  Track.
• Week three – focus and sit. (2-3 days of each)
• Week four – Hold and Finishes
• Week five – walk+look up, Scent.

Sports

Agility – we are moving slower than I thought, but that’s ok. Iterating understanding in several skills is a good theory, but it does imply actually increasing understanding during iteration, and that takes more time than anticipated. I think we here should have a list of skills (one for handling and one for technical), and just pick from that each week until I feel we can move on. For technical stuff, we’ll focus on jumps – both straight on and sideways, but mostly just building value for actually doing it. Handling skills – Away and Side.

There’s a fair bit of jumping overlap, here, but that’s ok. It means we can do it more, and more often. 

Rally – Hoping for better and warmer weather, so we can take it outside. The lawn is a mud bath, inside is cramped (I tried a slalom in the hallway, and I must commend his attempt to keep heel position – despite the water bowl on one side and the chest of drawers on the other), so driveway it is. Again, keeping attention for a longer period is our hardest task. Technical skills are pretty easy for him, and he generalises very well to other settings. I’m not certain we’re at four skills in a row yet, and some of the work now is on me to set up formal training situations and Just Do It.

Week 14

• Monday – CANIS/Agility jump, Team, Handling
• Tuesday – CANIS/Agility jump, AO, Watch
• Wednesday – CANIS bark, Team, Away/Side
• Thursday – CANIS bark, AO, Handling
• Friday – CANIS crawl, Team, Watch
• Weekend – Rally, AO, Away/Side (Leftovers)