Friday 23 April 2021

Dog school for them and me

I've been taking Rusty and Rosy to dog school since February and we love it. I'm learning to be a handler with clear instructions and the dogs are learning to focus, watch, listen and to respond.

The class is a mix with obedience and heel work, some agility elements and now we're starting with scent work. I take Rosy to the first class and then an hour later my mom brings Rusty and we swop dogs.

We did really well this week - rewarding for me and the dogs.

Rusty got special mention from 'Teacher Nics'  for her unbroken stays. This is where I tell her to stay and then I walk a distance away from her and she must stay in place until I return to her and break the command. 

According to Nics, Rosy is "back in the good books. She did well tonight". Rosy can be a bit too exuberant, distracted by people walking down the road or the puppy school on the other side of the field. She was a challenge one evening a few weeks ago. She has redeemed herself. 

We've just started on scent work, which both dogs are going to love, especially Rosy. They already know 'touch' - to touch their nose to my hand or an object so it was a quick transfer the day before to get them to do this with their little yellow bucket. 

As they already have step 1 covered, we now need to train for longer duration of 'touch' to shape for 'indicate' - showing that they have found the scent they are looking for by holding their nose there. This opens up a whole avenue of 'treasure hunt' activities.

In our 'Minute to Shine' segment, Rosy got to show her friends in class that she understands 'Speak' and 'Sssshhh' (quiet). Rosy is a bit of a chatterbox (and then Rusty joins in) so this week I taught them 'speak' - to give me a bark on command - and then its inverse of quiet. Both girls doing very well. Quiet will be applied in real life a lot more than speak. 

Rosy's class is earlier, in daylight. Already getting dark now when Rusty's class starts (to explain the lack of photos of my girl Rusty). 

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