Review of July / June:

CANIS – Not quite the skill-a-day I was planning, but I’ve got it in the background.

Agility course – Worth the money, absolutely. Loads of new information, excellent set up, loads of future work for us. His obstacle focus is so-so, which influences forward sends. His front crosses (if he sends) are great, his back crosses are messed up with backside sends. Laterals we can do at about a meter distance. Come to heel/side are pretty decent (as long as the angle isn’t past the line of the jump), though I’d need a professional eye to see if he’s got the weight shift I want. He easily jumps a session of 8″, but needs a weight reduction to start jumping higher. His startline stays are so-so, but some of the Recallers games should help there.

TEAM – A little work on Backups, which needs more (sorry, lots more, apparantly!) work to become a fluid motion, and to avoid swinging sideways. ‘Send To Target’ was however exactly where I want it.

30 days of heeling – Started mid July. He is excellent with off-body rewards up on a table, highly variable with _accessible_ off-body rewards. I.e: if I keep the treats on the table he has great focus on me and the work. If they are on the floor, his zen/Its Yer Choice tends to falter. Our personal best is 4 steps + two turns. Our worst is “what is this ‘heel’ of which you speak?”. I haven’t videoed every day, and some are rather spontaneous.

You can also find the challenge as #30daysofheeling on instagram. Some are beginners, some a smidge above beginner (like me), some superb who I can just gaze open-mouthed at. Like 30-60 seconds full focus, heads up heeling before rewards? Yeah, that’s some way away.

We have had some great sessions, up to four steps, with turns and all, where he really thinks about where he’s supposed to be.

We’ve had tired sessions, where he sits and chews for ages before looking up again.

We’ve had utter mess sessions – like trying to find a front on a platform, where he sits half a mile away. Or yesterday’s backup session where he swung 90 degrees out immediately – and then did it for all the sits after even when going forwards. (Houston, we have a problem! Is it fallout from accidentally stepping on his toes??)

We’ve had play sessions, where we worked on bounce and energy and nosetouches, rewarded by a toy.

We’ve had sessions where we got in one repetition before he ran off with the ball or got distracted by someone/thing else.

But we are working consistently, and that is good.

Recallers – and then there is the paid program I jumped into early July. I have known about it for about one and a half years, but always thought it was far too expensive ‘just for calling the dog’. Well, it was on sale after the Homeschool the Dog program was over, and I clicked the Paypal button.

VERY pleased with the results so far. There are 40 different games that open over a series of weeks (the subscription is annual, with a discount for alumni), and we have barely dipped our toes into the double digits. (But that’s mostly my curiosity ‘new! shiny!’ – actually we are in the low tens still.)

Two of the four core games are about grabbing the collar at every opportunity, particularly states of arousal, and rewarding heavily (and we SO need this!), and Its Yer Choice which teaches release words and self control (and Fenris is levelling this one up FAST now that we’re putting effort in – can you imagine throwing a piece of sausage near your dog, and he stays put on his mat? I was flabbergasted. Duration is a bit harder, but it always has been for him.). The other two are Restrained Recalls and Call Once. I thought I knew what an RR was – read the text, still thought I knew what it was. Watched the video – and realised just how many subtleties and layers there were. From reward placement, body position, motion, fading and varying body position, to the difference between luring and rewarding, and which side of the body to reward on. Call Once is recalls in a circle – haven’t really done that one yet.

Planning August:

And now that we’ve paid for it (well, started, at least. I went for the six payments option.) Recallers is going to take center stage. I want a daily core game, and a daily other. Maybe just the next module (games 5 through 8) on a randomish rotation (i.e. either pick a random, or one that seems feasible right now. Organic decision making).

Secondary is TEAM (the obedience titling program I started looking at early this year). I want to particularly focus on the following exercises:

• Practice 1.1 – engagement and pivoting. That’s ten sec of non-toy, non-treat engagement, then onto a platform and pivot together 180 degrees. Weeks 32 and 33
• Learn 1.8 – send round a cone 1.5 meters away. Shouldn’t be too hard. Week 34.
• Start digging into 1.9 – scent discrimination. This’ll take some months of focus, I suspect, unless he suddenly ‘gets a clue’. Every week.
• Learn 1.10 – stay with release. I _think_ we have this one out of the box, but we’ll need to check and formalise it. Week 35.

Thirdly complete the #30daysofheeling (we are about halfway as of writing), with a particular focus on backups. (And of course the pivoting we work as two-for-one with the TEAM 1.1.)

CANIS – eh. I should. But the stuff is piling up again. We will see. Bottom priority.