Training Log for Nov 15

Luna at 4 months old. Those are some big ears!

This morning we worked on Zen, Down and getting a tuck Sit.

She was beautiful on the Zen exercises. I'd put my open hand with a treat on it in her face, told her to 'Leave It' and could easily count to 10 before clicking and dropping the treat to the floor. And WOW, she had solid eye contact the entire time! Great! When we're working on Watch she can't look at me without whining or moving or thinking she needs to do something else, and then I say 'Leave It' and she can do 10 seconds of solid eye contact. That's mean. And cool. I also tossed one treat at the time at her while cueing 'Leave It', and she nailed those, too! So, that's a 100% success rate!

Then, we had a little break playing tug, and moved on to the Down. She nailed it 100% of the first 10 treats, so I started moving myself around, sticking my arms and legs out and even lying down on the ground. Again, she nailed all of them but 2, where she really thought she should target my hand. Interesting. Even so, I'm really proud of her! 40 treats - 2 = 38 treats = 95% success! Whoo hoo!

In there, I dropped a treat by accident, Luna went after it, I cued 'Leave It' and she did!

Another game of tug, and then I decided to tackle the tuck Sit, where I want her to keep her front legs in place and scoot her back legs under herself. Found some tips in Kay Laurence's 'Learning Games' book, she said to hold one hand against the back of the dog's head so she couldn't slide backwards. I tried that a few times, which worked, but then I also learned that if I moved the treat to her nose and a little forward, she would also tuck her back legs under. Nice! So we have a tuck sit! No cue, and I am still luring her nose forward to prevent a back sit, but this is a promising start. Next session I will not put the treat in my lure hand, forgot to get rid of that this session. But again, I am proud of my little lady! Yay!

If anyone has more tips on how to explain the tuck sit to my girl, I'd love to hear them!

Later today we will be doing the Come Game, Name Game and Target. Don't know if I'll be able to post that stuff today as my brother usually steals the internet in the afternoon, but if I can post about that today, I will update this entry.

UPDATE: Training done last night included the Name Game, Target & Come Game. We also did some impromptu loose-leash work on the street in front of our house before dinner. That was fun!

Loose Leash: 40 treats on the street in front of our house. I started this because she is always searching for her 'best friend' the Maine Coon, a very bold cat that will come and greet her from time to time. I didn't see him myself, but I thought it was a nice opportunity to do some LL work. I would stand facing her, then turn and walk straight backwards past Luna, clicking when she released tension on the leash and actively followed. By the end of the 40 treats she more often than not kept the leash from moving at all. She'd come with me as soon as I got past her shoulder. Whoo hoo!

Name Game: 40 treats, paid for making eye-contact upon hearing her name. She was standing the whole time, so I will make sure that for the next session, she's in a different position. She locked on every time I said her name.

Target: 40 treats, paid for touching my target hand wherever it was. Jump up to touch it, reach down low to touch it, left, right, chase it to touch etc. She missed 4, every time I put my target hand down below my knees. Interesting... will explain that to her in smaller increments next session. Success rate: 90%!

Come Game: we played this on our last walk of the day, on the street in front of our house. She's not yet turning away from me automatically to get the next treat. I click when she turns toward me after collecting the treat I tossed away, then drop another treat between my feet. No cues yet, 40 treats makes for 20 complete away-and-back-to-me's.

Total training time so far, starting today; 1 hour.