Saturday, April 28, 2007

Saturday April 28th 2007 - Team practice

(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)

It became clear today that Walter is really, really taking his time to sniff the ball before deciding if he'll pick it up or not. (treat ball = pick it up and carry it; regular ball = maybe pick it up, maybe not, and if he does he'll only hold it for a second before spitting it out) He puts his hands on the box, pauses to sniff the ball before he picks it up, then hops his feet onto the box to finish the turn. Seeing as this alternating between treat ball and regular ball isn't having the desired effect, we're going to only use the treat ball for several sessions. Only when he's got that part down will we gradually and slowly introduce a regular ball.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Saturday April 21st 2007 - U-Fli (Carp Curling Hall)

(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)

Walter kept us company at Lucy's U-Fli tournament today, which was the first time both dogs were crated (as opposed to staying in the car) at an event and it actually went quite well. To prevent a day-long barkfest their tarps were placed so as to block their views of each other, and both dogs were quite quiet. Also, he settled nicely when brought inside the building a few times.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Thursday April 18th 2007 - home practice

(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)

Have had the box at home this week. Haven't had to use the treat ball at all; he's bringing a normal ball back from the ledge consistently. The problem is without much room to get up any speed, he often cheats the turn.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Saturday April 14th 2007 - Team practice

(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)

Some more work with the treat ball and one jump. To prevent him from dropping the treat ball like a kong to make the treats fall out, I put one big piece of treat inside instead of a bunch of small ones and wouldn't give him a treat from my bait bag until the ball was in my hand so he'd still associate the ball with a treat as much as possible. A few times we snuck in a normal ball and he picked it up every time, but he dropped it sooner than he would drop the treat ball. Next practice, we'll put the treat ball in the unsprung hole.