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.