So far this week, we haven't slacked off too much (yet). Tuesday, Bosley had his agility class. I have been working hard to teach him to turn 180 degrees away from me on a verbal cue only. I thought he was doing pretty darn good, until class. When we practice on the flat, he immediately turns his head and front half of his body in the right direction, but as Amanda pointed out, he does not follow through with the rest of his body without a physical cue from me. That should be easy to fix - I just need to hold my position until he is fully turned away from me and moving in the opposite direction. Bosley is also not generalizing this concept well at all. We moved from working on the flat to asking for the "turn" behavior off of a contact. Bosley just stared at me when I said "turn" as he was standing at the end of the dogwalk. Hmmm.
Last night we had our obedience/rally class. His heeling was pretty good, but I need to work on more drive (as usual) and I am trying to get tighter "about turns". Bosley has a tendancy to have a "puppy sit", and I decided I don't want this anymore. So from now on, I will only reward nice, straight sits.
This week I have been working on building toy drive with Bosley. I am following Susan Garrett's "building toy drive" plan on her website. I took a fun tug toy and put it in the drawer of a table in my livingroom. A couple times a day, I ask Bosley where his toy is (in a excited voice) and then run to the drawer, pull out the toy and then throw it around while cheering and showing him how much fun it is to play with the toy (I don't let him have it). I know I must look ridiculous, I know I feel ridiculous, but I am trying to get him excited about the toy. As soon as he is really excited (barking and jumping) and really wants the toy, I put the toy away. I think he is getting the idea, because as soon as I walk towards the drawer, he runs and tries to get into it before I do. Last night, he was very excited and jumped to get the toy and I ended up with 2 big scratch marks down my face. Today we progress to Bosley being able to touch the toy briefly. I hope this method helps with his toy drive a bit.
If this weekend's weather is nice, I hope to get Bosley out to the park to practice some obedience with more distractions.
P.S. Maggie says "2 more sleeps until I get rid of this stupid splint"!
that toy drive article is great - i used it with jane when i started using the treat pouch (ladybug) and her container, sounds like Bos is on the right track - i bet between him and maggie there will be ALOT of barking hahaha!!!!!
ReplyDeleteoh an i was thinking of the bully stick thing, you could even put it in a long sport sock - being as he likes socks so much, and let him chomp on it - you could swing it around to entice him, i am just trying to picture the visual, and i am laughing.
2 more sleeps!! i think we should have a party for maggie :)
funny!! I am doing the same thing with Kort's dumbell, I feel really dumb, oooing & ahhing over this thing....as soon as Kort gets excited by it I put it away, next week I think I can actually throw it for him...we'll see !
ReplyDeleteOh we hope that Maggie's splint is off and that she is doing well!!
ReplyDeleteWe are going to check out that toy drive training. We loved your description! Priceless.
Lots of Luv & Kisses
Addie and Lucie