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Thursday, July 10, 2008

Rally Practice Video

Last night Amanda video taped our last class of our latest session of Rally Obedience.  Bosley's heeling was pretty good, but he was really struggling with his fronts and finishes last night and I am not sure why.  I guess we will need to work on his left finishes a bit more.  





My favorite parts of the video are the left 360 turn (Bosley is really keeping his butt in) and the Schutzhund turn.  

It seems as if my "treat in the crate" reward system is starting to backfire on me.  I was using this to keep Bosley motivated during his runs and to know that he would get his treats when he was done working rather than while he was working.  Well, during our first run through last night, which was not taped, Bosley would not concentrate on what we were doing.  He kept looking at his crate and was trying to get back to his crate and eat his cookies.  Now that we are in Advanced Rally and it is all off-leash, this is not a good thing.  All I need in the middle of a  trial is for Bosley to go sprinting back to his crate to eat his goodies.  I guess it is back to the drawing board to work on a reliable reward system for him.  He is just so food crazy (see previous "cake eating" post), that he will do anything to get his food, even if that means blowing me off and running out of the ring.  I am really wondering now how we will get past the food bowl distraction that are a part of every Advanced Rally trial.  Maybe we will be competing in Advanced Rally for a very long time.



3 comments:

  1. i used to do the same thing for the crate/treat with Jane, she started doing the same thing, i had to start making the reward more random, and being rewarded for being in the ring, not running back to you crate - I get it Jane you do that well HAHA

    you might need to mix it up a bit for him. vary where the reward is outside the ring? sometimes I leave it in clear view, but they have to work for it, for Kaleb I leave show him I am leaving it in a spot and we work through it. OR to be sneaky and outsmart him, I place 3 treat/toys (1 he sees, 2 he doesn't) and he THINKS I am giving him the one he saw, but I give him a totally different one.

    I do this in both Agility and Obedience.

    great video!!! he is so awesome!!!

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  2. I think you should try the rewarding out of different spots- I think the "goodie bag" clipped to the fence will help as you can move it wherever and it won't be as predictable...

    he's a very good boy though!

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  3. Very nice job Bosley! You heel very neatly & you're always watching your mom. That's good! Keep up the good work & quit running staring at your crate.

    Butt wiggles,
    Solid Gold Dancer

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