8 months 17 days
2011/10/09
We had a very good time today, though it didn't turn out as planned.
We went to a drop-in conformation class. I was surprised that it wasn't cancelled, being it's the day before Thanksgiving, a major holiday. Well, turns out it WAS cancelled, but the roof had leaked so I helped move equipment and mop while Syn played with a 2 year old Lab. This was nice to see - the Lab was very enthusiastic and excited to see her. It came racing over and all but bowled Syn over. I thought this would scare her (but it was too late to do anything about it before it happened), but she took the charge as a play overture so it didn't frighten her. She also rather strongly objected to how rude it was and definitely told the dog to get out of her face. Good pup!
(Later a Golden came in, got the same greeting from the Lab, and responded the same way - by politely but firmly telling the Lab she was being inappropriate. The Golden, unfortunately, got a pinch-collar correction for being "bad". Sigh.)
After moving equipment, the Golden and another Lab were practising for an upcoming obedience trial, so Syn and I tried some obedience moves as well. Well! I'm thrilled.
Her attention was fantastic. While the poor Golden was being niggled to death with the pinch collar to try to get it to pay attention, Syn was glued to me. I started asking her to heel, which she has only ever done a few steps at a time except in her Rally Novice trials. She was great. When I used the heel cue "Squirrel!" she bounded once, then leaped high and came down bounding. This is EXACTLY what I want! Then I thought about a Rally trial coming up in 3 weeks and tried heeling again but this time asking her to "Watch". She took off smoothly and fairly precisely, eyes glued to mine. Wow! I had to cue most sits as I stopped, but then I've never taught her an automatic sit.
Then we did some figure 8s. Her inside circles were fanTAStic. She was pulling her butt in as we went around, which made her sidestep the circle (her back feet travelling in a bigger circle than her front feet). Very pretty, I couldn't have asked an experienced dog to do that any better. The outside circle wasn't as good. She didn't realize how fast she'd have to go to keep up with me, and it's quite a change of pace after the inside circle - which is the point of the figure 8, I imagine. I could get her to do it by building up some anticipation as we came out of the inside circle and by cueing "Squirrel!" at the point where I wanted her to speed up. What a fun puppy!
Next, recalls. Bear in mind we were working on 10-second sit stays yesterday, so I thought I'd try to get across the room so I could call her, but I wasn't expecting much (OK, granted, I wanted to show off what an 8-month puppy who had never worn a pinch collar could do). I asked her to sit, asked her to stay, and walked away. She started to follow me when I was about 15 feet away from her - which, again granted, gave me a good opportunity to say "no, silly puppy, that's not what I wanted" in contrast to the other trainer who was yanking and scolding. I took her back, rewarded her for sitting, asked her to stay again, and this time I got all the way across the room and counted to 10 before I called her. She came with her usual Superman recall and sat in front of me (considerably crooked), then came around behind me into heel position again when I asked her to.
By then I was getting a little depressed about the other dog so we practised a few sit and down stays and then went home. We got up to 1 minute each with no problem at all. Of course, that won't translate into any improvement in performance in my parlour, but it was lovely to see, and lovely to look across the room at Little Miss staring at me with eagerness and trust.
And nice to know that I'll be doing a seminar for this club in 3 months. Maybe Syn and I can get one person to tuck her pinch collar quietly in a drawer and not use it any more.
We went to a drop-in conformation class. I was surprised that it wasn't cancelled, being it's the day before Thanksgiving, a major holiday. Well, turns out it WAS cancelled, but the roof had leaked so I helped move equipment and mop while Syn played with a 2 year old Lab. This was nice to see - the Lab was very enthusiastic and excited to see her. It came racing over and all but bowled Syn over. I thought this would scare her (but it was too late to do anything about it before it happened), but she took the charge as a play overture so it didn't frighten her. She also rather strongly objected to how rude it was and definitely told the dog to get out of her face. Good pup!
(Later a Golden came in, got the same greeting from the Lab, and responded the same way - by politely but firmly telling the Lab she was being inappropriate. The Golden, unfortunately, got a pinch-collar correction for being "bad". Sigh.)
After moving equipment, the Golden and another Lab were practising for an upcoming obedience trial, so Syn and I tried some obedience moves as well. Well! I'm thrilled.
Her attention was fantastic. While the poor Golden was being niggled to death with the pinch collar to try to get it to pay attention, Syn was glued to me. I started asking her to heel, which she has only ever done a few steps at a time except in her Rally Novice trials. She was great. When I used the heel cue "Squirrel!" she bounded once, then leaped high and came down bounding. This is EXACTLY what I want! Then I thought about a Rally trial coming up in 3 weeks and tried heeling again but this time asking her to "Watch". She took off smoothly and fairly precisely, eyes glued to mine. Wow! I had to cue most sits as I stopped, but then I've never taught her an automatic sit.
Then we did some figure 8s. Her inside circles were fanTAStic. She was pulling her butt in as we went around, which made her sidestep the circle (her back feet travelling in a bigger circle than her front feet). Very pretty, I couldn't have asked an experienced dog to do that any better. The outside circle wasn't as good. She didn't realize how fast she'd have to go to keep up with me, and it's quite a change of pace after the inside circle - which is the point of the figure 8, I imagine. I could get her to do it by building up some anticipation as we came out of the inside circle and by cueing "Squirrel!" at the point where I wanted her to speed up. What a fun puppy!
Next, recalls. Bear in mind we were working on 10-second sit stays yesterday, so I thought I'd try to get across the room so I could call her, but I wasn't expecting much (OK, granted, I wanted to show off what an 8-month puppy who had never worn a pinch collar could do). I asked her to sit, asked her to stay, and walked away. She started to follow me when I was about 15 feet away from her - which, again granted, gave me a good opportunity to say "no, silly puppy, that's not what I wanted" in contrast to the other trainer who was yanking and scolding. I took her back, rewarded her for sitting, asked her to stay again, and this time I got all the way across the room and counted to 10 before I called her. She came with her usual Superman recall and sat in front of me (considerably crooked), then came around behind me into heel position again when I asked her to.
By then I was getting a little depressed about the other dog so we practised a few sit and down stays and then went home. We got up to 1 minute each with no problem at all. Of course, that won't translate into any improvement in performance in my parlour, but it was lovely to see, and lovely to look across the room at Little Miss staring at me with eagerness and trust.
And nice to know that I'll be doing a seminar for this club in 3 months. Maybe Syn and I can get one person to tuck her pinch collar quietly in a drawer and not use it any more.