I've been fiddling with the stand with Teagan for a few days. She already has her CD, but I usually don't bother teaching the stand in Novice, especially since my dogs are breed dogs and can be hard stacked on the floor. I usually teach it sometime after Novice. I'd like Teagan to get her RE before I breed her (in addition to her CDX, if we can swing it).
I decided to teach it a little differently with Teagan than I did with Stuart or Basil. With them, I lured them forward and clicked as they moved into a stand. However, I really like a kickback stand because it doesn't teach any forward motion....and while Basil sometimes kicks back into a stand, he usually moves a step or two forward because of the way he was taught. So instead of luring her forward, I decided to teach Teagan to kick back into a stand with her rear by tickling her flank while she was in a sit.
The first 2-3 sessions were difficult, because she was very resistant to any touch on her flank. She'd look irritated, and give me a sideways glare that said, "I'm SUPPOSED to be in a sit, Mom!" But I forged ahead, clicking the instead she responded to my touch on her flank. I never pushed her into moving, just used my hand to "inspire" her to get up.
Today, it finally clicked! As I reached down to touch her flank, I barely tickled her skirt and she stood up. JACKPOT! Then she did it again--woo hoo! We had a lovely session of about 20 or so repetitions, and she was fantastic each time. I'm using a very light touch, and clicking the instant she moves. She did start swinging out a bit, so I worked her up against the wall. I also started adding the cue.
I'm so excited! I may enter her in rally at the end of June if I can get this stand finished...that's the only thing holding her back from getting that RE. I just didn't have time to teach it to her.
We also worked on some Open stuff and Basil did a little Utility. I think he was hot, because he was shutting down on articles, which he usually loves doing. He's so heat-sensitive, and even though it's only 60 degrees, the sun was shining directly on us. We did some great go-outs and gloves, signals were okay (missed a sit signal and a recall signal, but that's okay--we're working at 15 feet right now!). Directed jumping was a mess. I really need to keep track of distance between jumps and distance away from jumps rather than just guessing, because I made it too hard today before he was ready for it. He thinks that my right arm signaling a jump is really signaling a recall, so I may need to put baby gating between the jumps again.
