Well it has been a while since I posted. I cannot believe how long it has been and I am wondering what I've done since my last post. On June 6 and 7 I was at an obedience trial with Merlin who bombed both days. I know I did training on June 9, 10, and 11. She went for a bath at Caroline's on June 12 and I picked her up on the 13th. We trained on the 14th. Last week, we trained just two days. I took her the third day but I was so late getting there, it got too hot to work.
Miss Morgan can now run to her crate from about 40 feet. She sits when I put my hand on the door although this is not as automatic as I would like it to be. I've been mixing up her other training a little too much to see much progress so I'm going to have to pick out a few things to work on until I get her to feel really confident in them and then add on to her repetoire.
Today, we did crate training, broad jump, attention, sit stay, and front. I will put her schedule together for the next few days. We head to Savannah on Friday for yet another trial for Merlin. I decided not to enter her in pre-novice because we really do not have heeling together before we do anything anywhere else but home. I hope to get in some training while in Savannah but the excitement of a trial will make it a challenge. The doggies will have a week off starting next Monday as I am visiting my parents for a week and they cannot have dogs.
That's all for today. I'll be a little more organized tomorrow, I guess.
Training Morgan, a six year-old standard poodle in obedience, agility, freestyle, and hunting.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Salon Treatment
Morgan had a day off yesterday because she was receiving her beauty bath at her breeder's. She looks MARVELOUS. Today, I slept in -- decided to do training at home. Maybe later today.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Catching Up
I have been the the building twice to train this week and keep forgetting to enter my blog notes. Morgan remembers all of the Stage 1 crate games that we played and we are ready to move on to stage 4 but I think I need a partner to accomplish stage 4. I think I will start training her in her new crate that I bought at the hunt test that is supposed to be more portable than her verikennel. I'm hoping that I can get her so happy to be in her crate that I can put her back in a canvas crate before long.
She is doing great with the attention training as well but I haven't done the Terri Arnold official training. We are still do focus and I think I will do that for the next couple of weeks before I move on to those stiff stationary exercises.
For three days in a row, I have hand fed her which is part of the focus strategy. I know that the training and feeding ahs already improved our relationship. I envision great things from her.
She is doing great with the attention training as well but I haven't done the Terri Arnold official training. We are still do focus and I think I will do that for the next couple of weeks before I move on to those stiff stationary exercises.
For three days in a row, I have hand fed her which is part of the focus strategy. I know that the training and feeding ahs already improved our relationship. I envision great things from her.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Crate Games and Focus -- Day 1
I took Morgan and Merlin to the building today -- a little later than I had hoped and it was already hot out there at 8:30. Anyway, I put both of them in crates but started work with Morgan first. Merlin was very good and did not whine once while I was working with Morgan which is unusual.
We started with crate games. I opened the door with my left hand and fed Morgan "high and in the back" with my right hand. She didn't know what was going on at first but after a couple of tries, she was anticipating the cookie. She was supposed to sit up in the crate to get the cookie. Trouble is there isn't a crate in the building (or at home for that matter) where a 23-in dog can really sit up, so she had a slouching sit. The reason she was to sit was so that no part of her would hang out of the crate and even a slouching sit accomplishes this goal. She learned REALLY fast what was expected of hernad we zipped through stages 1-3 in 20 minutes. That included letting the door stay open, picking up the leash, putting on the leash, and finally giving her permission to come out of the crate and waiting until she went back into the crate to feed her. I was amazed that she went back into the crate in about 20 seconds. Yay! I just knew this would be the spot where we would get stuck. She got a jackpot. I took a break and trained Merlin a bit.
After the break, I brough Morgan out of the crate and we started our focus work. I started by doing the on-off switch work which she already knew but was eager to play. She takes my non-verbal cues like I yelled at her. As soon as I stood still, she stopped. Amazing. Also, something to remember when doing agility :-) We then did the connect with me game where I clicked and treated every time she looked at me. She loves this game. Finally, we did a close recall where I say Morgan, come with her only inches from me and me on the ground with her (actually I sat in a chair which put me at eye level with her almost. Lots and lots of food, just repeating Mogan come. We'll see if it works better than an e-collar :-)
The last thing we did was a Terri Arnold attention exercise with her making eye contact with me for 10 seconds. We did that about 5 times. The session was over.
I am so excited about how easy it is to teach this dog anything. Teaching her is not going to be the problem. The problem will come when the cookies fade away and she decides that she won't play the game with no pay off. I won't think about that right now, I'll think about that later. Right now, it is exciting just training her.
We started with crate games. I opened the door with my left hand and fed Morgan "high and in the back" with my right hand. She didn't know what was going on at first but after a couple of tries, she was anticipating the cookie. She was supposed to sit up in the crate to get the cookie. Trouble is there isn't a crate in the building (or at home for that matter) where a 23-in dog can really sit up, so she had a slouching sit. The reason she was to sit was so that no part of her would hang out of the crate and even a slouching sit accomplishes this goal. She learned REALLY fast what was expected of hernad we zipped through stages 1-3 in 20 minutes. That included letting the door stay open, picking up the leash, putting on the leash, and finally giving her permission to come out of the crate and waiting until she went back into the crate to feed her. I was amazed that she went back into the crate in about 20 seconds. Yay! I just knew this would be the spot where we would get stuck. She got a jackpot. I took a break and trained Merlin a bit.
After the break, I brough Morgan out of the crate and we started our focus work. I started by doing the on-off switch work which she already knew but was eager to play. She takes my non-verbal cues like I yelled at her. As soon as I stood still, she stopped. Amazing. Also, something to remember when doing agility :-) We then did the connect with me game where I clicked and treated every time she looked at me. She loves this game. Finally, we did a close recall where I say Morgan, come with her only inches from me and me on the ground with her (actually I sat in a chair which put me at eye level with her almost. Lots and lots of food, just repeating Mogan come. We'll see if it works better than an e-collar :-)
The last thing we did was a Terri Arnold attention exercise with her making eye contact with me for 10 seconds. We did that about 5 times. The session was over.
I am so excited about how easy it is to teach this dog anything. Teaching her is not going to be the problem. The problem will come when the cookies fade away and she decides that she won't play the game with no pay off. I won't think about that right now, I'll think about that later. Right now, it is exciting just training her.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Bad Start
Well, I haven't done anything in training for Morgan in days and I feel really badly about that. I took her to the building on Friday but left her in the car because I went late, it was hot and I was pretty brain dead after training Merlin. The usual excuses.
I slept in this morning because I averaged 5 hours of sleep on Friday and Saturday nights due to the trial in Spartanburg. However, tonight I will go to bed early so that I can get up on time and go train and walk Morgan.
What I did for Morgan's training today was to watch the videos I bought last year and never used. I watched to crate training video, which she really needs and I watched the In Focus DVD. I got some great ideas for both dogs and will make my training schedule for this week based on those ideas. Actually I am doing a syllabus tonight of a 6 week training for Morgan and Merlin that I plan to stick to like glue. Today was a day of rest but tomorrow, we start my master plan in earnest.
I slept in this morning because I averaged 5 hours of sleep on Friday and Saturday nights due to the trial in Spartanburg. However, tonight I will go to bed early so that I can get up on time and go train and walk Morgan.
What I did for Morgan's training today was to watch the videos I bought last year and never used. I watched to crate training video, which she really needs and I watched the In Focus DVD. I got some great ideas for both dogs and will make my training schedule for this week based on those ideas. Actually I am doing a syllabus tonight of a 6 week training for Morgan and Merlin that I plan to stick to like glue. Today was a day of rest but tomorrow, we start my master plan in earnest.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Rally Training
Today some friends set up an Advanced Rally course and since Morgan hasn't done Rally in about nine months, I though I'd see where she was. Well, she was where she should be after not being trained for nine months. She didn't know what Front means, she didn't do an automatic sit promptly on the 1 step, 2 step, 3 step, and her attention was all over the place. The second time we did the course, she was better. She knows all the signs -- well let's put it this way she has been introduced to all the signs MANY times. She was just inattentive and because I didn't have tasty treats, she was not about to try to give me attention.
I'm putting together a list of training needs for my girl. She really needs EVERYTHING. I have to start from scratch with her. Luckily, she does have the foundation and she knows low to learn. I will construct her training program over the weekend -- make a weekly syllabus and go from there. One thing I know I am going to do is the Crate Games tape. I am so tired of having to convince this dog that she should go to her room or get in her crate.
Kathy
I'm putting together a list of training needs for my girl. She really needs EVERYTHING. I have to start from scratch with her. Luckily, she does have the foundation and she knows low to learn. I will construct her training program over the weekend -- make a weekly syllabus and go from there. One thing I know I am going to do is the Crate Games tape. I am so tired of having to convince this dog that she should go to her room or get in her crate.
Kathy
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