Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Saturday May 26th 2007 - team practice
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
More progress! For his first turn with the normal ball in the unsprung hole, he paused, sniffed it, said "Hey, this ain't no treat ball" and didn't take it. Same for the second so I went and picked up the ball and we tugged with it. From then on he picked up the ball every time, bringing it to me for a game of tug. He's still pausing midturn but I'm confident that will fade once he forgets about the whole treat-ball/non-treat-ball guessing game. Didn't use any jumps for today's boxwork. Now if only I can manage to keep all of my fingers until he can transition to bringing the ball for an actual tug... :^)
More progress! For his first turn with the normal ball in the unsprung hole, he paused, sniffed it, said "Hey, this ain't no treat ball" and didn't take it. Same for the second so I went and picked up the ball and we tugged with it. From then on he picked up the ball every time, bringing it to me for a game of tug. He's still pausing midturn but I'm confident that will fade once he forgets about the whole treat-ball/non-treat-ball guessing game. Didn't use any jumps for today's boxwork. Now if only I can manage to keep all of my fingers until he can transition to bringing the ball for an actual tug... :^)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Wednesday May 23rd 2007 - supplementary outdoor team practice
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Seems to be working - Walter brought the regular ball all the way! Didn't do a lot though because it was warm and the mosquitoes were coming out.
Seems to be working - Walter brought the regular ball all the way! Didn't do a lot though because it was warm and the mosquitoes were coming out.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Tuesday May 22nd 2007 - home practice
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
I have a gut feeling (or perhaps a desperate hope? :-) that I may finally have found the trick for getting Walter to bring the regular ball! The idea popped into my head this weekend at the Trenton tournament watching a dog whose tug sends her too far over the top so she's rewarded by playing tug with the ball. Well, Walter loves to play fetch with tennis balls, and he enjoys tugging, so I put two and two together and decided to try putting away the treat ball; instead, his reward for taking the ball is we will play tug with it. So yesterday and again earlier today I grabbed some gloves and we played tug with a tennis ball away from the flyball equipment. Like any game of tug he enjoyed it; the hard part is figuring out how best for me to get a grip on the ball without getting my fingers dented by his teeth! This evening I put the normal ball in the unsprung hole and he was bringing the ball all the way to me, and he seemed to be having a lot more fun! The first few "turns" he cheated but then I backed him up all the way to the kitchen and he was doing the turn again, though still pausing mid-way. Can't wait for team practice to work on this some more.
I have a gut feeling (or perhaps a desperate hope? :-) that I may finally have found the trick for getting Walter to bring the regular ball! The idea popped into my head this weekend at the Trenton tournament watching a dog whose tug sends her too far over the top so she's rewarded by playing tug with the ball. Well, Walter loves to play fetch with tennis balls, and he enjoys tugging, so I put two and two together and decided to try putting away the treat ball; instead, his reward for taking the ball is we will play tug with it. So yesterday and again earlier today I grabbed some gloves and we played tug with a tennis ball away from the flyball equipment. Like any game of tug he enjoyed it; the hard part is figuring out how best for me to get a grip on the ball without getting my fingers dented by his teeth! This evening I put the normal ball in the unsprung hole and he was bringing the ball all the way to me, and he seemed to be having a lot more fun! The first few "turns" he cheated but then I backed him up all the way to the kitchen and he was doing the turn again, though still pausing mid-way. Can't wait for team practice to work on this some more.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Thursday May 17th 2007 - supplementary outdoor team practice
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Walter did well with bringing a low-value-treat ball to me.
Walter did well with bringing a low-value-treat ball to me.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Wednesday May 16th 2007 - home practice
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Walter has been doing his pause-turns for a regular ball at home this week, bringing the ball almost all the way to me.
Walter has been doing his pause-turns for a regular ball at home this week, bringing the ball almost all the way to me.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Saturday May 5th 2007 - Team practice
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Started with recalls past 4 or 5 dogs lined up, no problems. For today's boxwork session we alternated between treat ball and no ball, about 7 or 8 turns in total. The turn was fine with no ball but he was hesitating mid-turn when the ball was there the way he did last week. Darn these dogs with good memory! but once he realizes we're not trying to trick him I think his flowing turn will come back.
Started with recalls past 4 or 5 dogs lined up, no problems. For today's boxwork session we alternated between treat ball and no ball, about 7 or 8 turns in total. The turn was fine with no ball but he was hesitating mid-turn when the ball was there the way he did last week. Darn these dogs with good memory! but once he realizes we're not trying to trick him I think his flowing turn will come back.
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