Red Plays with Lynnda

Red plays with Lynnda after Control Unleashed class.

Dog Training

What!?! On a dog training blog?

Using breakfast (kibble for training) I worked both dogs today:

Red worked on the fold back down.

Blue worked on go to mat as it was tooo cold to work on Loose Lead Walking outside. Ms. Blue pulls like a freight train.

XXXXXXX

Red will offer his relax down (turn around three times and flop down
flat on his side) or his regular down (fold over on left hip then
lower chest and chin to the ground) most often, even with a lure.

I started requesting a regular down and tossing the treats behind him
so he had to get up. Over and over again. When he got tired of
getting up from that position, he folded into a down. That was the
first time I clicked. So he did it again (with out my asking for a
down - which is a good thing I realize as I want to keep the regular
down. I tossed the treat to get him up and he offered it again. I just
clicked and tossed, clicked and tossed. We did about 15 reps with him
offering.

Silly me to see what he would do, I asked for a down. He sighed and
gave me his regular down. I treated him and freed him but did not
click. I had to toss a treat to get him on his feet again. I waited.
He offered the fold back down. I clicked and quit. When I get to the
naming point, I think I'll call it drop.

Blue's training involved sending her across the room to her mat. We
just did six reps at eight feet and quit. My goal is to be in the
kitchen out of sight and send the dogs to mats in the living room. I
had to put Blue outside while I worked with Red. She was not a happy
camper. Red was happy to be fed just for laying on his mat while I
worked with Blue.

Yesterday I worked both dogs at the same time on the mat as a magnet.

Dogs in Black and White

Additonal goals

Here are more goals for me.

I will run Red in some form of agility this year (and do the training to get there.)

I will teach Red a fold back down.

I will get Blue certified to take a tracking test (and do the training to get there.)

I will reduce my waist line so I can run Red in agility (and do the working out to get there.)

+++++++++++++++

Here is my workout plan.

Every other day I will do a 30-minute program of high-intensity interval training. I'll take one dog along each time I go.

The plan is to:
* walk for 10 minutes at a brisk pace
* jog for 4 minutes
* run hard for 1 minute
* jog for 4 minutes
* run hard for 1 minute
* walk for 10 minutes

What does not kill me will make me stronger. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Maybe I'll start when the SNOW is gone. :-(

Dog training goals

My goals for Blue include basic social skills and team work.

I want her to sit, down and go to mat (and stay there) regardless of the distractions.

I want a rock solid come to front and either side, her to stay with me while working off lead, a supervised separation (so she'll allow a helper to hold her in agility class), and her to ignore other dogs even if they jog towards and then pass her with their handler.

I want to be able to leave her in a down stay while I walk the rally course.

I want Blue to be able to play with me and a toy anywhere.

I want Blue to be able to run with me (circle work) without herding me.

My goals for Red are fewer.

I want him to happily get into his car crate.

Ears

Waiting for dinner

More dog photos.

Red is waiting in his crate in the laundry room for dinner while Blue waits on her towel in the kitchen.

Fixing Red's Crate Screaming

This is how I am fixing Red's unhappiness in a crate.

First thing I did was take away the crate in the car and I stopped
using the crate in the house so that I could retrain it. Red is a soft
whiny dog as several people on this list will attest. I will add back
the car crate in another week or two. He had gotten to the point where
he did not want to jump in the car and I had to shove him in the
crate.

Now we feed Red all his meals in a crate - with the door open to start
but now I close the door while he is eating. Red goes in his crate
first, I then deliver his meal. I latch the door and walk away. I
return to let him out as soon as my other dog is done eating as Red is
the slower of the two. That way I can return and open the door before
he finishes eating. However I think it is time for me to start
returning after he is done but before he is noisy about it.

I always leaving the crate door open when the dogs are not inside. A
couple times a day I'd toss treats in the crates while the dog were
out side playing. Both dogs run in to their crates when they come in
the house now from being outside to check for any stray treats. They
just stay long enough to eat the treats.

I put a very comfy pad in the crates. I found Red napping in his crate
with the door open the other day. It was just before dinner time and
all the comfy dog beds were in the washer.

I started doing formal crate training sessions. Red used to be great
in his crate so basically I am *retraining.* I started with clicking
him to go in to a crate. I put a crate in the living room and one
next to my computer in my office. I tied the doors open. I started
with just clicking Red dog for looking at the crate, moving towards
it, putting a paw in it, etc. When he has a body part in, I toss the
treats past him in to the back of the crate instead of clicking him
which causes him to come out of the crate to collect his treat. Soon
times I close the door with out lacking it. He'll stay. I let him out
before he whines. Some times I latch it.

I just started walking away from him while in the crate and leaving
him with a stuffed kong or another goody. And I've been leaving him a
minute or two. Sometimes I send him in the crate and ask him to stay
with the door open and me near by. I think all the mat training we
have been doing helps a lot too. I have not put his mat in a crate.
Hmmm.

I started class with a treat and train on the top of a wire crate. I
found that Red never left work mode. He would eat and whine and eat
and whine and every once in a while if he could not see me but could
hear me talking to the class, he'd scream and or bark and then go back
to eating the falling treats.

So now every I class I spend a few minutes at the beginning of each
class to shape him to go in the crate. I don't leave him for long. I
take him out and we go do mat work. Later in the class I do another
session. And then after class we do a third. I put the thickest
comfyest warmest sleeping bag that I could find in the largest crate I
could find. I've been putting canned tripe in his kong. And I let him
out of the crate as soon as he is very settled and comfy. I do leave
him and go out of sight while he is working on his kong. He'll now go
in the crate in class when I request it and stay until released. And
after released he will turn around and reenter the kennel to check and
see if he missed any treats.

(Lynnda is this what you mean by training posts?)

The Greyhound

Mat

Red and Blue share a mat.

Higher

Red Eye

Hunt for the Bunny

A Minnesota Spring

"What's this? Did the kid say that it is spring?"

"If I go fast enough, maybe my feet won't get cold!"
(Ms. Blue is quietly watching Casey in the yard behind us.)

"Faster! I must go faster!"

"Wooohooo!"

"I can go fast, too!"

Run, Red, Run

Chase

Cold Nose

Red loves his mat.

Photo by Roxana Saad

Photo by Roxana Saad

Dog Toys

Red Dog

A Study in Red