Got homework, do I ever!! This period between now and February is notoriously slow. I actually seem to acquire my most problem and behaviorally challenged cases at this time of year. There is a Springer in Canada whose owners are deciding whether to bring him to Mannerly Mutts camp for some weeks. One Doberman puppy that is scheduled to start on the first week of December. He is not a behavioral case, just a normal puppy of my favorite breed ever.
In the meantime, I schedule marketing projects, my own dogs training, and any special items during this period of time. There is a nice young couple that is helping me with my video project for my online and written dog manual in the works, and to be launched next year. I am also keeping a diary of the work to prepare Jack and Bri for Open trials next year. It's really unfortunate to have short haired dogs in training during the coldest months of the year. It just happens that trials heat up again in the ME and NH area in the Spring though. There really is no getting around it. Summer is too busy to train (my dogs), although we did catch some trials during that period last year. The point is, the brunt of the training was already done previously with only maintenance work to be done. I wasn't really in it last year to compete point wise either. I just wanted everyone to qualify. This year, I want to be up there in points. That's not more stress on the dogs but more stress on me, as it is I that teach them LOL. If they are doing it wrong it's because
I taught it wrong. Then there are the handler errors, which the dogs have zero control over.
In order to catch my errors, I have been video taping my exercises periodically. I also am hoping some of these come out well enough....eventually....to be part of my online training manual. This won't be a subscription service, but a convenient area where clients can pull up the lesson plan for that week as they continue to work. They will also be reminded of what the exercise should look like, and be able to keep notes on their own progress. I will most likely keep a video diary of my client's progress on a go forward basis as well.
There were a bunch of things that I fixed from Week 1 retrieve start. We are now on week two, but I refilmed the working of week 1's exercise. Before starting, your dog should be confined (crated) for two hours. After retrieving your dog, you warm him up on Novice heeling exercises until he is doing those reliably. After he is, the steps are to put your dog in a stay, open his mouth with your left hand (palm should be on top of his nose), present the article, say fetch just as the article is presented before his nose, then pop open his mouth and place the article behind his canines, say good boy and scratch under the chin (just a couple of seconds), then say give, and heel him away. You then restart the exercise. You do this for five repetitions twice a day. So 10 repetitions in all. After working, you quietly hang out for twenty minutes, and then allow your dog to relax in peace for an hour without anyone bothering. This is what lends a well trained dog a quiet, calm, and confident demeanor. This is my video diary of how week 1 was going:
On week 1, I would like for his auto sits to be much crisper and quicker. He was distracted by two dogs on property that he hadn't met, the people helping with the camera, and his brother Leon wandering around. Still, these are the distractions that we want him to be not distracted around. The wind blowing everything around was not helping him focus too much either.
On week 2 video, unfortunately Bri and Leon had both just gone up to Jack before we started. So he was very distracted with wanting to go off and play instead of work the five reps LOL. Hence, he was a bit resistant to opening his mouth.
On a couple of reps, I saw that I popped it in crooked. Also, the old I am moving before I say "heel" crept in there. I believe I had also forgotten to walk as if I was heeling in a trial at the beginning. Noting these things as we go along help me formulate my lesson plans, and help me build my skills to a higher level as well. Jack is also helped by me learning how to more simply and consistently show him the right way. Sloppiness or mixing up the steps or inconsistency will result in a dog that has been trained to do it wrong, because that is what he/she thinks you want.
