I recently had a project (part 1, 2, 3) where I was working on both dogs' ability to touch a target with their nose or paw on verbal cue only. As I updated last week both Lance and Vito have a 100% rate (on most days) with the target now and I am pretty much bored with it except for some occasional transfer of their cues to different objects. Well for Christmas I ordered myself some old back issues of Clean Run Magazine and picked a few in the Linda Mecklenburg's series on her handling system...

fickla

It's been almost 2 weeks since I posted on my current training plans for working with the dogs at home. So here's the update.
1. Touch vs Whack- I updated earlier that Lance was the first to reach 100% in a training session! Vito followed closely behind. I've done a tiny bit of generalizing with Lance on a new object (round container of nuts on its side) and percentage went waayy down. Lance thought the goal was the kick the container so it rolled along the floor. I have not tried it...

fickla

Lance entered Rally Excellent today at the big dog show. I have stopped by the show in the past to see all the conformation dogs and great vendors, but have not competed there. I decided that this would not be a good show to do actual obedience in, way too many distractions for little Lance, but rally might be ok.


Well his score was good, a 99,...

fickla

Lance wins! Today marked the first day that Lance got 100% on his paw vs nose target discrimination. (Part 1, Part 2) Previously both dogs had been hovering close to the 100% mark but always managed to screw up once or twice. Today's test involved random switches between the two behaviors and at one point I tried to trick both dogs by doing 3 "touches" in a row and then asking for "whack it." Both dogs passed the trick, but Vito failed another switch a couple trials later....

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fickla