Yesterday we wokred on steadiness - or sit-stay with distractions, if you like. I was doing close up work - we were in the living room, so I was no more than 4 meters from my pup at any time.
Previously we have worked on duration and distance, i am up to 25 steps away from her outside, in low distraction areas. I need to get that up to 50 meters, in semidistraction areas before she is ready for the first test (I am unsure how to translate the name of the test, but it is the basic obedience test that will allow us to progress to field/hunt tests and fieldtrial-training. In the test we have to show LLW, heeling, sit-stay while handler walks 50 meters away, recall from the stay, a shot is fired to check for gun shyness and finally handler throws a dummy which the dog picks up and retrieves on cue - delivering the dummy to hand, no dropping it) But I digress.
We did a few sit-stays where I just walked around, then I walked around carrying a toy, no problem. I tossed and catched the toy. still no problem. i tossed the toy away from pup. No problem. I tossed toy over pups head. Wups to much too soon, she went for the toy. she came over to me with the toy, so i took it from her with a pat, and repositioned her in the sit. Cued stay. tossed toy around. Tossed toy over her head at close range and c/t at the same time -before her butt left the floor. You should have seen the look she sent me: "huh? what? just sit here? treat? oh, that is ok then...!" So we repeated a few times. She never broke the stay again. She looked after the toy when it was tossed, but that is something I want to keep, she should look for things falling, one day she will be asked to pick some of the fallen stuff up.
So we ended on a high note with a handfull of treats strewn all over and she got her toy back. Next time we will try to progress to dummies...
Oh, btw For a quick "lets do something else to relieve boredom excercise" interspersed in the sit stays we did backwards walking. With the kitchen cabinet as a barriere I got an instant walking backwards in heeling position, just by walking backwards myself. Very satisfying. But our dogs are so much faster at learning moving behaviours than the quiet things...
And my adult dog learned two new things yesterday. Circle around mum and her paw lift was extended to a "high five- low five" Cute.
I tried the spin -without- moving-front-feet. But i am finding it quite hard. With a hand target in front of her nose and my body "walking into her" she can do it, but she is not aware of what she is doing to earn the click... still thinking on how to get this. She is very front-oriented, I really think she has no idea that she has hind legs. they are just something that follow the front.
Good times.
progress
Next session with steadiness was inside, but using a dummy. No problem.
And Thursday we took it outside. I can now throw a dummy around - no matter what position I am in relative to my dog and I can throw it in any direction relative to her, and she keeps her sit. This is very good indeed. Usually takes a lot longer to train. The steadiness is very important to our future work.
The retrieve is so rewarding for her that I can use it as a reward for being steady. She loves all food treats but getting to retrieve is the jackpot. Which is exactly what I wanted. :o)
Christina