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What are you working on right now?

2K views 17 replies 12 participants last post by  wideturn 
#1 ·
Always curious to see what everyone is working on, what they've prioritized, and what you're struggling with.

I'll go first:

Levi

Levi is pretty solid, but lately I've noticed his responses getting slower, so we are working on only rewarding average or better. We are getting there, but it is frustrating sometimes.

Settling and loose leash walking are awesome, and he is excellent at being a demo dog! He happily hangs out on a cot while we teach intermediate obedience, and in a create for beginner obedience (he's too distracting for the puppies!)

We\re also adding lots of tricks to his repertoire. He finally is getting some duration on sit pretty, and duration on "tall" (stand on two rear legs).

Add of course, lots of agility stuff. :)

Heidi

God love her, she's crazy. Loose leash walking is a struggle, and surprisingly, her stays aren't great. She'd prefer to stick to your side (her heeling is wonderful!).

We're working on stays, position changes at a distance, agility foundations, and relationship building games.


So, what are you working on? :)
 
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#2 ·
Nothing that fancy, that's for sure!

Chisum is working on reactivity, as always. We are in obedience class and are slowly working on being transitioned out of the gated off section and into the space with the others.

Raleigh is also working on obedience and is in class. He's sooooo sweet but for an Aussie, he comes across as a bit of an airhead :). At the end of the class we get a shot at the CGC and I have no doubt he'll pass.

With Sophie I am working on getting her more comfortable in social situations. She's not reactive, just shy. We are also preparing to run a 5K together.

Nellie is still undergoing heartworm treatment, but after she's done and healthy she'll probably be taking herding lessons.

And Lexy is....awesome. She's retired from having much asked of her and she knows it. I'm hoping to throw her a 13th birthday party in November though.
 
#4 ·
Brody just passed his basic CGC test last month, followed by a major move, so we fell out of training for a little while. Now that we are settled in and stable I'm looking to continue his training and possibly start getting him into some sort of sport. I picked up a cheapo agility equipment set and a training book, and once the book gets here we're going to give it a shot!
 
#5 ·
As always Zody and I are working on his reactivity. It's slowly getting better, and the number of people he's deemed worthy of being allowed to walk in his apartment complex is growing, but some days it seems like it's 3 steps back for every 2 steps forward. Then there are days like today when he does great, and I can see that all the work we've put in is beginning to pay off.
 
#6 ·
I think this is a good post for me to think about. I'm pretty scatter brained and feel like I need to start listing out what needs to be worked on. Was actually thinking about buying a whiteboard the other day to write everything down.

So a main thing right now is trying to find Aayla's drive again.

She has been rapidly loosing interest in her toys and tug, and her desire for treats is going out the window again. She is still doing everything I've asked of her but its starting to lack enthusiasm. Rewarding faster just means she drops treats and ignores them, toys she is starting to ignore and not retrieve. So we are doing very very short (1 minute max) play sessions where pretty much I act all crazy and then stopping. Trying to get some hyper back up for toys.

Then on the side when she is having a good day we are working on several things.

Agility :
  • Side / Close (right/left informal heel)
  • Wrapping
  • Out (backside of jump)
  • Building Drive for Jump
  • Nose Targeting for 2o2o

Rally (and other obedience) :
  • Hind end awareness (stop scooting out)
  • Ignoring distractions (toys)
  • Down->Stand and stand->down without creeping
  • Straightening our Front
  • Lots of Pivot work
  • Closer Proximity while heeling
  • Stand stay/wait (she has started creeping)
  • Sit (she started thinking that sit was down....)
  • Recall, more times than not I'm needing to repeat a recall cue, so need to get that back down to one

Dock Diving :
  • Tracking the toy!
  • Height to our jumps

Tricks :
  • Handstand (no wall)
  • Hide your Face
  • Duration for Beg/Bow/Walk on Hind Legs
  • Play dead and bang need to be revisited
  • Roll Over (decided she doesn't like this one unless its while running)

Others :
  • Dremeling, I've been bad and haven't been working on it, she was a little stressed (but good) last time. She needs more paw handling desensitizing.
  • Engage/Disengage for more proper greetings of timid and/or reactive animals
  • Stop jumping on people (we actually are finally getting there now. Its more of bad people now that encourage it unknowingly)

I want to add what I'm working on as a handler :
  • Stop repeating cues!!!!! (I need someone to pinch me every time I do this or something, I know better!)
  • Shorter sessions
  • Get rid of scolding tone
  • Smaller steps, more rewards
  • More shaping, less luring
  • Have a plan and stick to it
 
#7 ·
Only thing I'm working on with Tucker is stairs at the moment, mostly because we've been waiting for our new condo to finish being built and have been staying with a friend for the last 4 months. They have 2 dogs there so doing any training has been a bit difficult, but stairs (just indoors) have been tough, thankfully he's a little guy and can be carried most of time. Have gotten him to the point where he'll go down some flights of stairs. I can't find any reasoning why he'll go down some flights but not others. and will go up the last 4-5 steps in a flight.

At the place where we're staying the bedroom is upstairs so if I ask him if he wants to go to bed, he'll sit then when I bend over he'll pop up on his hind legs then jump as I pick him up.
 
#8 ·
@PoppyKenna - I keep forgetting how many dogs you have now with the addition of the two Aussies! Good for you for working on something with everyone!
@Besoeker - That's good! It's nice when it is minimal. Is it barking at the door, or barking at passer-bys?
@seawater - Ahhhh agility is so fun. Prepare to get addicted!
@Rain - Reactivity is hard. Two of my clients are reactive, one with dogs, one with people. Sometimes I see huge leaps forward, and then they are almost back to square one.
@ThatYellowDog - It's so hard when there is so much to teach! I just saw the other day that Susan Garrett is going to be releasing a video series of how she creates training plans for her dogs. Due to be released in mid October, so maybe she will have some good ideas?
@Thisisme19 - Levi has a thing about shiny floors. Bizarre.
 
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#10 ·
@Shandula - it feels like a zoo at times, haha! I have seriously fallen hard for Raleigh, though. He does seem like a bit of an airhead and doesn't really have intense drive for much, I think because he was in a bad home before the lady we got the dogs from took him in and he just doesn't really know how to learn. But man, he's just so sweet and gentle. His eyes look right into your soul, I swear. And he's a lot of fun, too - goofy and bouncy. I'm just head over heels for him.

My main goals as a dog owner is to have sociable dogs who know basic commands and tricks for fun. I love taking part in classes but am terrible as a trainer myself because I tend to get frustrated or stuck pretty easily. :/
 
#11 ·
@Shandula Good to know! I'll have to watch it when it does come out. I am terrible at planning for everything. Though after talking with the girls I work with I have decided to enter Aayla in for a Rally event to start working on her novice title at the end of October. So our focus is shifting to Rally, which is mainly going to be proofing skills in a high distraction environments. Which we might have to put off for a week due to her not feeling great right now.

What are you specifically working on right now for agility with both of the pups?
@seawater Congrats on the CGC accomplishment!
 
#12 ·
@ThatYellowDog - Truthfully putting Levi into his Rally trial forced me to work on it, which was nice.

Both my guys are working a lot on jump grids, directionals, and 1 jump skills (Serps, backsides, etc.).
 
#13 ·
Priorities--building confidence, drive & joy.

Sonic's a former free-range pet from the island. They have a different way of dealing with dogs there, so he would have a history of punishments (some harsh & random (from the dogs point of view) for 'active' behaviours, and rewards for 'passive behaviours'.
EG. dog tries counter surfing, dog gets hit with a broom.
EG. dog stands quietly in the corner, dog gets fed.
Which meant he had pretty much the opposite of what you'd want if you're training a sport dog (or even just want a 'fun' dog)

So 1st goals where dealing with his fears (check), and getting him (in clicker terms) 'operant' or 'active' in training. Offering behaviours, unreserved about making mistakes, that sort of thing.
And CHECK! Yay. He's got it. Yay! (I am ecstatic about this, because I it's one of those things that you never know if it's the dog or the history). But he's looking pretty spunky about training now, giving me the 'eye', and pushy exuberance I love to see.

Play, he didn't know how to play with toys or humans. I had to teach him from scratch. He's having fun now. I still haven't been able to wean him off the treats (in his tug & treat frisbee toy). As soon as a non-treat toy is introduced, he loses focus, so I'll stick with the treats for now, and just get him jumping higher, and tugging harder for it--which he seems to love doing.

Future goals--even more confidence, because inside my formerly shy fearful dog is a tough little nut that I want to see more of, a dog with resilience.

And fun--agility, as much as I can afford, parkour when I can't afford agility.

Right now, still drive building, a better game of tug, and a little less 'crazy whirling dog' on neighbourhood walks and a little more 'decorum' there too.

Off-leash, yay, great recalls, still would like to need to 'watch him' less, and 'call him' less. Would be nice to be able to daydream while I hike & he does 'dog things' within sight, but I remind myself to be careful what I wish for. Old tired dogs always walk at their owners side--and that will come all too soon no matter how far in the future it is.

So maybe I should just enjoy my 'crazy whirly dog' that makes my head spin with all his energy.
 
#15 ·
Ugh I'm not working on as much as I should be.

Agility classes just started again so we are working on refreshing what we haven't worked on for a few month.
Sending out to jumps
Coming to the hand (for Forbes)
Lead outs (For Roxie)
WEAVES (for Forbes)

I haven't brought Roxie to a class so I am assuming she is going to get over zealous like she always does after a long break and start blowing her leads, but of course she could shock me (I doubt it).

Last week Forbes did 6 channel weaves with them almost completely closed. SO he is getting better. I just need to get better about working them. (I hate weaves. Hate them. So much).
 
#16 ·
I'm not entirely sure if this counts, but me and Bandit have been making trips to a friends house to work on their cat's reactivity to dogs. They recently adopted two kittens and had a friend unexpectedly bring a very hyper very rude chihuahua in the house which just petrified the kittens. my friends want to eventually get a dog (which is specifically why they got kittens so they could teach them that dogs are friends) and were super distraught about it. I suggested bringing Bandit over and he's been wonderful! He won't get in their face and is super cautious about letting the kittens come to him. He's also very aware of not scaring them which I have to admit is an intelligence and awareness I didn't think my boy had. Just the other night on about the third visit we hit a milestone where the older kitten bumped noses with Bandit. Bandit just lay there and lightly wagged his tail but I know he's happy about the kittens growing more responsive to him, because he always used to play with Margaery.

Bandit's issues right now are basically recall with anyone who isn't me, he has a nasty habit of pushing through someones legs to run around the yard and won't come back until he's deemed appropriate, but he has perfect recall with me so it's hard to get anyone else to work on it with him. They also let their small dog roam the neighborhood so I don't think it really bothers them if he's out and about but it seriously bothers me, enough that I bought a tie out for the front and back door so at least the kids would tie him up if they let him outside.

His other main issue is whining,but honestly I've gone to a trainer about it and the best advice I got was "ignore it" and frankly that doesn't work. I've ignored and ignored and it never ends it just gets louder and he gets more frantic until he gets what he wants. Honestly I've pretty much given up on it because its pretty easy to predict (he doesn't like being in unfamiliar places without being in-between my legs or in my arms) and I'm almost 100% sure it's anxiety based and not attention-seeking like that trainer believed so as long as I can manage it and keep him out of stressful situations I'm not gonna fret too much about it.
 
#17 ·
Sawyer- I'm currently working on his fear reactivity with a trainer. Right now she has us working on solidifing "hears", which is just basically him looking away from his distraction, getting his stays really good and we've just started working on "with me" (basically healing) for when we come across distractions. Ive also been getting used to using and working around a leashed clipped in the front. We have our next session next week so Ill see were we go from there.

Maye- Ive kind of put her few bigger issues on the back burner for now so I can really focus on working with Sawyer. And thankfully I can apply some tecniques that I'm using with Sawyer with her. In the mean time were more mostly just working on for fun tricks and trying to get her to stop defult laying down for everything. I also hopefully plan work on some positive experiences being in the water before fall really sets in and it gets to cold since ive been slaking working on it over the summer (I want to hopefully get to the point were I can do dock dogs with her but ill have to see how far I can get her next year when its warm enough again)
 
#18 ·
I'm always working on Pax's resource guarding and I have to say he is infinitely better than when I started. He has zero desire to guard from me, and it's manageable in regards to strangers and dogs.

We passed CGC back in April and I would like to actually have him registered in AKC so he can bare that title. I also am working towards nose work and Rally.

Our biggest focus at the moment is competition heeling. We recently accomplished a silly goal: balancing on a bucket!
 

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