November Goals
For those of you who don't read my update and goals, I wanted to catch you before you closed out your reader. I'm looking for some new tricks to teach the boys. Please respond with any ideas!!!
Update on October Goals
1. Heeling: Work on Lance's forging- Still too early to tell if having Lance go around behind me and treating on my right is helping. He does seem to love it though!
With Vito I wanted to work on fast time and turns- Well at the trial a week ago Vito stayed with me on the fast time and wasn't quite as wide on the about turn. I still want to do quite a bit more work on these aspects with him though.
2. Disc: back stall and reverse chest vault- Vito can do the back stall now with a disc in my hand!!!! I don't know how to toss a disc to him yet from that position so we have been working on multiple disc catches/drops while he is sitting in front of me. For the reverse chest vault I really didn't work on it that much. I was starting it with an exercise ball and likely need to go back to that. On me he jumps up and does put his feet on my chest, but he's not really sure of what to do.
3. Scent Articles: mostly a failure this past month. I was lucky if I did them twice a week, some weeks none at all. But fingers crossed no issues are cropping up.
4. Retrieve: Closer, straighter front- Some improvement! I'm moving my hands in front of me to guide him in closer, and he is doing very nice with the extra help. Without help it varies.
November Goals:
1. Tricks! I want to get back to doing trick work with the boys. Anybody have any ideas? I really can't make up my mind. Retrieve a hot dog? Actually complete Vito's handstand? Back leg limp? Jump through my arms? Shake head no or yes? Please tell me what to do or I won't decide and end up not doing anything.
2. Go outs- Practice Lance's go outs in several new places. Try and go to a run through and see how he does.
3. Heeling- Continue treating "behind" with Lance to fix forging. Keep working on control with Vito.
4. Fronts and finishes- I haven't really worked on these in awhile. Be picky about what I'm rewarding, no reward if he has to fix his position.
5. Disc- Anything I can do in the house. Back to the exercise ball for his reverse chest vault practice. Multiple catches/drops while sitting in front and start to transfer a catch/drop while on my back. And without Vito, work on floating a disc correctly.
I love trick work! I've recently started a new program with Gatsby where I shape a different trick every session. He has a lot of unfinished behaviors, but it's helping him work independently of me. I broke him working on heel while I was healing, now he just gets stuck there when we're doing agility.
Say your prayers is all the rage since the video of the ACD praying before dinner went mainstream.
Sneezing is a cute trick, but hard to capture.
I'd LOVE to see jump through/into arms, it's one of my favorite tricks and Gatsby will have none of it.
Big bark/little bark
Have you seen the trick video of Jesse the JRT that's going around? There might be something in there.
First of all, I have so much respect for you for keeping up with your goals. I'm so disgusted with not having accomplished any of the ones I've set, for so many reasons. It's so great that you stick to them and accomplish them.
For tricks, what seems to be people's favorite of Layla's is her Peekaboo trick. It's also useful for agility; instead of trying to figure out where to line her up at the start line, I "peekaboo" and there she is, dead in the center of my body wherever I'm facing.
I'm also interested in the jump through/into my arms. I want to teach that to Layla, but I'm going to wait until I can get back to physical therapy. If I have to support her weight on my arm/shoulder, that'd easily set me back further than I already am.
I never wanted to teach a shake head yes/no because I think it kinda makes the dog look like a retard, particularly if they're offering it without it being cued. I don't want to sit there with my dog trying to get something from me and "twitching" like crazy!! Maybe it wouldn't be an issue, but I don't want to take the risk!
Jun is learning to balance a treat on her nose. I never did finish Lok's hotdog retrieve, that's a cool one! I might have to try that one with Jun next.
As for disc . . . throwing, throwing throwing!!! And I would be VERY careful with the RCV. Vito (from what I've seen) doesn't have a lot of coordination or self-preservation instinct--just based on the wild flailing in the air he does for the disc alone. The RCV takes a lot of coordination and can end pretty badly. Just the swimmers turn is not such a big deal, but the added element of catching the disc makes it a lot harder and more likely to go badly. Disc placement is HUGELY important. You might want to work on a more linear vault first, like a leg vault.
I can teach you to float the disc for a vault/stall/over toss. Let me know.
Thanks Ninso, you're right that Vito has no sense of self preservation. I haven't done any tosses yet at all for any of his vaults, mainly because I know I don't know how to throw properly and don't want him killing himself tying to get it.
Brian gave me some good pointers at the meetup last month so I've been working on throwing better :) I would love to get some tips for you on throwing and training!!! I was really hoping you were going to be at the park a few days ago.
I totally spaced it! Had other plans that ran long. But hopefully we can get a few more in before it gets too cold, and some indoor stuff this winter!
I like how you are using your blog for your training and goals... I'm going to do that too! :-)