Startline and stay work

Well, the Tangle-man is proving to be a great student, so we worked on startline and stay work today. I have to say that I was amazed at this 14 week old puppy's ability to stay until given his release word "OK".

Imagine this when you watch the video: We are having work done on our house right behind me. There is the pounding of knocking down walls, there is a skid steer picking up trash, and the GC is watching very close, and Tip sitting at the sidelines. This little puppy is focusing through all of this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUx74ei7LJ4

Loose leash walking

I had to drop my car off at the local automotive place and decided that Tangle and I would walk home. It would give us an opportunity to practice the loose leash walking, getting past barking dogs in a calm fashion and just general have some good exercise.

Tangle got to visit everyone in the car shop, get treats and pets. He also greeted the residing dog and did a fine job saying hello.

Tangle did really well on the walk home. For the most part he respected the end of the leash. I only had to stop a half a dozen times to remind him that he was pulling too hard. Good boy.

We past a Great Dane, a small high pitched barking dog. Both times when Tangle approached the area where the barking was coming from he began to yawn. I was really proud of him, with the GD his tail stayed down and his walk was very calm. The smaller dog was a little harder. Again, yawning, but the tail went up. He then began to sniff and hang out in the area. Never once did he decide to bark! We are making progress :)

Side notes: Tangle got to go to agility class last night. We worked on running over a plank, watching nicely while other dogs ran.

Skid steers, dump trucks, and agility

This morning we went over to the field to train. I suspected that we would have some distractions, and the construction people didn't disappoint me!

There were skid steers, dump trucks, people pounding and walking around. This was actually great for two reasons: Split and Tangle. Split does not like loud noises and machinery, and Tangle is to the point where training with distraction is good.

With Tip and Split I worked on jump grids, contacts, and lateral sends. Tip has been knocking bars and not acknowledging that she knows she is turning. We worked on that and it only took her 4 tries to get back into shape. Split was perfect from the beginning.

When I get a second I will post the jump grid that we worked on.

Tangle was stellar this morning. It took him about 30 seconds to get over the distractions (mostly the other dogs actually) and figure out we were training. Once he knows we are training he is ON THE JOB!! We did a little bit of teeter work. That is the teeter was about 5 inches off the ground and he was just on/off it making it move. My goal was not the teeter, but the movement! He still does not have control of his hind end (not surprised) so keeping his hind end on the teeter is a bit of a challenge. That will come.

Second we did flat work. We are working at a walk and just following my movement. Although he has always been good, today I noticed more fluid motion in the work. We did front crosses, rear crosses (not natural yet) and walk beside me. We also did recalls to my side.