The handler is rusty

 

Training makes one sleepy.

We didn't do much today. But did some play retrieve work this afternoon and they are VERY nice. I'm so blessed to have a Collie that loves to retrieve and carry around a variety of objects in her mouth. 

Then tonight Darcie and I worked on backing up. It was slow going. Mostly I think due to me. I know I wasn't splitting enough, and my criteria wasn't clear enough! Shame on me!

I had Tess in an expen about 20 feet away. Darcie is very "aware" of other dogs while she's working (she secretly thinks they are all out to get her food) and I have been slowly introducing another dog chilled out at quite a distance away during training to help her learn yes, she can work, and no, the other dog isn't coming to eat her cookies. I'm seeing more focus and more relaxation each session.

I started with her in front of me while I was sitting in a chair. That went nowhere as she decided to sit, down, offer eye contact, nose touches, and everything else except a hint of backward movement. Tried luring, with some success, but she still wanted to down (lovely fold back down, btw) at the sight of the food. So I stood up and walked toward her. That got her backing up and though it's not my preferred method, it did get me some backward movement to work with. I took it. I just clicked for tiny, tiny movements back, but I can tell it's very hard for her. She's doing a lot of thinking and "huffing" at me.

We worked on stay a bit. I haven't added a "stay" cue yet, right now sit still means sit, and down means down. I really haven't pushed this girl much at all yet, she is very slow maturing emotionally, and is quite different than my other dogs. 

I brought Tess out. Tess is my wild child. Bouncing off the walls, yelling, all sorts of "go go go" about training. Today I watched "Crying for Control", by Deb Jones. And while Tess doesn't currently do agility, I did get a couple of ideas that I wanted to refresh with her. 

We did a lot of work on reinforcing calm sits and downs. No shifting, whining, "jittering around" or barking. Just calm behavior until released.   

Then we worked on some "it's yer choice", or zen, leave it, etc. Whatever you like to call it. She learned it a long time ago, but I have been so busy with the puppy I have noticed she's been really pushy and mugging everyone. So back to square one. Sure enough, she took one look at my hand containing food, and I could almost see a cartoon text bubble popping up with "food!!! sqeeeeeeeee!!! mug the hand!" and she was all over it. She was very determined and it took a bit before I got a clickable moment. Once the "oh yea" lightbulb came on we did start making fast progress and she was leaving food alone in my open palm, AND didn't dive bomb for dropped cookies. Good girl. 

Training 4 dogs keeps me very busy. I need a better schedule! The puppy needs to be worked with every day, but the others might be rotated around to have their own "day" in addition to the puppy. Some days I can't get a session with all four in!

At least I have plenty of time. With a conformation dog in the house now, I will have to focus more on conformation this winter during the local show season. 

We are under a Tornado Watch tonight. So. Muggy. Ugh. Even the Collies are acting hot.