03 March 2008

Did some training on our walk this morning. Again concentrating on building excitement and attitude. Did food circuits with Dora on the field with the occasional ball throw. did several throws and then into heelwork. The ball worked better as the treats were hard to spot in the grass in the half light.When doing circles I am trying not to look at Dora much but become aware of her position by feel. I also want to move away from making eye contact with her as this brings her a bit too far forward. I am shifting the emphasis onto her following my hand. I am particularly looking for her changing her position as I move my hand when changing from right hand to left hand circles.

With Ruby I used digging in a mole hill for her reward as that is what she wanted most. It work better than a stick as she can't run off with a molehill! I encourage Ruby to dig in the mole hill, then ask her to leave it, cue a behaviour. When she does the behaviour correctly I click and then send her back to the molehill. and get her to dig again. This worked very well. I need to keep the rate of reinforcement high with Ruby or she loses enthusiasm so I only ask for one or two behaviours then reward. I am gradually extending the duration of heelwork, being careful to keep the attitude I want. I also played with a stick. We played tuggy with it again using my voice and quick movements to encourage her. I did food circuits and then threw the ball for her to pick up. She did run after the ball but wasn't keen to bring it back. I then switched to the stick and played eith that, did a couple of trows, then threw the ball and asked Ruby to bring me the ball to get the stick back again. that worked better than the food. will keep at it

We did some agility at mums agian this morning. I set up the weaves offset by an inch and Ruby ran them well.

i set up all the jumps in one long zig zag to practise sending Ruby on ahead of me but she has not really got the idea yet. She runs well alongside me or to catch up with me but does not continue ahead very well. I need to work out how to get her to carry on ahead.
i did more playing with Saffy round the jumps getting control. Tugging then asking her to release and rewarding the release with the toy. did some running through the uprights. She is not sure about running to the toy when doing this she tends to expect food but I want to move on to toys as she has problems seeing the food quite often.

This evening I took Saffy and Dora to training and after the class again worked on speeding up food circuits. With Saffy I did several circuits, then into a circle and clicked for her catching up and touching my hand. Throwing the tidbit ahead. I also did a few food circuits and then threw the dumbell for her to bring back. She did stop and look when she realised it wasn't food but picked it up and brought it back to me.

With Dora I did more food circuits, alternating with the ball or a toy and into circles. also did set ups for Crufts.