Well, it is 2013 and I am once again attempting to blog about my training. I am a little motivated becaues I showed Morgan in Freestyle (at least I tried to) and obedience two weekends ago with various levels of failure. :( In freestyle, Morgan KNEW her routine. She did it very well and seemed to be enjoying it half the time. On the day of the show, she ran out of the ring twice and still did not perform the dance while on lead. I was so mad at her but also a little apprehensive because I planned to show her off lead at the obedience trial the next day. It turned out that she did not leave the ring, nor did she dive for the toys or cookies in the Figure 8. However, she looked like I beat her every day and twice on Sunday. She never looked at me and she wandered off so far on her off lead heel, I thought sure she was going to leave the ring. All this in spite of getting multiple commands and much praise.
Today I gave a workshop for fellow obedience instructors on attention. We did a lot of proofing exercises and I think that the dogs learned a lot from it. I KNOW that Morgan learned a lot from it and she was very confident in what she had to do. I HAVE to do more of that with her. I'm still convinced that her lack of performance is a lack of confidence even though she does know th eexercises.
My goal for Morgan again this year is to work on our relationship. I need to be more vigilent about not giving her opportunities to do wrong and I giving her more opportunities to do well. Just a few minutes ago, she came to me with a toy she wanted me to toss for her. I took the toy stood up and asked her to heel. I decided to toss the toy after she heeled in position for the length of the hallway and kitchen. When she did, I tossed the toy and she didn't go for it. I realized that I did not say her release word when I tossed the toy. I praised her madly for not gettint the toy and then I released her and tossed the toy again. We worked on her not anticipating today and she was good and was waiting on her release word.
She often has moments of brilliance. I once though she was an every other day dog to train. I'm beginning to think she is an every 3 days dog to train. ;) She did well today but that may also be in part because I left the boys at home.
More about Morgan's training. I think I'm going to try to post once a week since I obviously suck at posting every day.
Training Morgan, a six year-old standard poodle in obedience, agility, freestyle, and hunting.
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