April Training Plans

But first here's a look at how March went.

1.  Go Outs-  This goal had the benefit of being a Go Click Challenge so I devoted extra time to it for one week.  I added major distance with Lance and Vito, but we are still having to work up to it each new session.  I'm doing a paw touch to a wall or ring gate so one of our issues is going straight.  For the most part the dogs are good, but if I'm standing near a parallel wall (ie. sending a dog kind've near the corner) they might veer off to cross in front of me and hit the wrong wall.  Or in Vito's case, go to the wrong wall and touch a panel jump leaning against the wall.  Really Vito, whack a jump with your paw?  What were you thinking?!  Oh and I decided against adding the auto turn and sit after the touch just in case they start anticipating that and skipping the touch.  While the eventual go out will end up in the sit and not an actual touch, I want to keep the two behaviors separate for quite a long time.

2. Scent Work-  I did actually work on this, although not quite as much as I'd like.  But Lance has a 100% success rate with only 2 articles, and Vito a 90% success rate with 2 articles.  This is also without any aids such as a little yummy peanut butter smeared on top- the dogs are sad.  But also happy since I am now working 3 articles with Lance and occasionally help him out with some pb.  I don't know why 3 articles is much harder for the corgi then 2, but his success rate isn't bad but not good either.  All practice so far has been on metal dumbbells.

3.  Tricks- I have participated in Go Click each week even if I haven't posted a video each time.  I can't say that they've learned any NEW tricks during March but there has at least been an extra focus each week (Crawl, sticky target, go outs).

April Goals
1. Scent Work- keep forcing myself to do it.  I hate training it, mostly because of the setup involved and how passive it is.  But needs to be done multiple times each week.

2. Freestyle Routine-  I've mentioned that I am working on our freestyle routines.  Have no idea what I'm doing but it's fun!  Lance has a song but Vito is still searching.  My April goal is to have a rough draft for Lance's moves, pick a song for Vito, and have some sequences done for Vito.

3. Tricks- Do Go Click Challenges each week.

4. Frisbee- Vito is obsessed with balls and only likes the disc.  He won't even look at it when there is any possibility a ball might be involved.  I want to premack Vito's love of the ball for a fetch of the disc.  In other words, Vito must first mouth the frisbee to earn a throw of the ball/tug with the dumbbell tennis ball, then pick up the frisbee to earn the ball, bring the frisbee, etc.  If it goes well, teach him how to catch the disc too as right now he only catches balls and sometimes food.