May Training Plans
April's progress
1. Scent Work- Huge round of applause for me since I actually forced myself to do their scent articles almost every training session!!! I believe Lance had just started doing 3 metal articles at the beginning of the month and now he is doing 5-6 articles with a mixture of metal AND leather! Things are going really smoothly with Lance on this.
Vito progressed from 2 metal articles at the start of April to 4 metal articles now! Overall he is good at thinking about which dumbbell to bring back but he still sometimes gets stuck on grabbing the first one he sees. With both dogs I am still sitting on the ground about 2 feet from the pile, no formal stuff yet.
2. Freestyle Routine- Mostly fail. Lance still has the same tiny bit of routine planned out as before. But I guess I did actually practice doing the moves in it a bit and did some stringing of it together without the music. Very little though. And Vito still doesn't have an official song although I have a few in mind and one that I'm heavily leaning towards.
3. Tricks- Mostly checked off. I participated in 2 Go Click Challenges, and fixed another one from the end of March. I didn't have time to do the last challenge and the current challenge is the drop on recall which I obviously have and am mostly happy with on Lance. Vito I do not want to practice this yet but do a lot of fast drops in motion already, drops at a distance, and throwing treats to practice downs while racing towards me.
I also did some work this month on some of the many tricks I've started and never completed. Such as Vito limping, Lance limping on his other front foot, Lance "marching" in heel (not just in front), and Vito's penguin (moving forward in a beg). All are a tiny bit further along, but still incomplete.
4. Frisbee- YES!!! I ended up not premacking the disc for the ball as I went to a club day event that featured MN Disc Dog and found out that Vito really is nuts about the disc too! As long as no other toys are present Vito is just as crazed over the disc and I can even produce some toller screams. So for now there will be no thrown balls outside in the yard, only discs. Oh and at the event everybody LOVED Vito!!! And he was catching like crazy for them and will now catch for me as well as long as I can try and throw somewhat properly.
May Training Goals
1. Scent work- I still need to do this as often as I can. I would like to get Lance working the full pile this month (12 articles) minus the formal crap. Vito needs to start working on leather as soon as he gets a bit more confident on the metal.
2. Tricks- This time I am going to pick a trick and stick with it! I want to have a finished trick instead of just being in progress. Vito's WILL be limping on his front right, and Lance's WILL be marching in heel and "up" in heel.
3. Train outside!- It's nice out and I need to get myself outside and training. Mainly getting some jumps and my board out and doing agility work. Try and work on the freestyle routine outside as well with Lance and disc with Vito!
4. Go to an obedience run through with Vito- I want to see where the little one is at and work on having fun in the ring!
Oh God, tell me about the tricks started and then never completed! Ha! Ha! I'm full of those! Often if Honey gets really stuck on one, I end up getting fed up and just switch to teaching something else. But sometimes I'm just plain lazy and don't teach something properly- like I've been teaching "face" (when the dog holds its paws over its eyes) FOREVER but she still never does it properly - although that's really my fault because I removed the tape from her face too early and haven't really spent anytime refining it so that she is always putting her paw on her face properly - instead of just waving it in the air in the vicinity! :-)
Oh, PLEASE get on with your Freestyle routine!!! I'm DYING to see it! Even just a rough run-through! I think Lance would be SO cute dancing and you have such focus & attention from him already - the holy grail in dancing - and it would be so nice to see a Corgi do it - I don't think I ever have!
Hsin-Yi
I know how you feel on the uncompleted tricks!! I don't think any of Jackal's are actually 'finished'. I get bored so easily and always move on before things are proofed or on cue really well. Sometimes I let it really get to me, thinking that if he won't do his tricks every time I ask no matter where we are that he doesn't really know them, but then I remind myself of how much we've learned together over the past two years and I'm happy again lol. I think you're doing fantastic with both of your dogs. You are so consistent with them. I can only dream of being that consistent. :)