Colby appears to be feeling much better. I wasn't totally convinced that stopping her farm walks would be a good idea as she had seemed better after them. But, it appears the vet was right. She has not had any walks for two weeks and is down to her prednisone once/day and seems so much better. She has once jumped off the bed, bad dog. OK, bad ME! But, in a way that's a good sign as she wasn't wanting to do that before.
I just have to be a bit more careful and make SURE she doesn't jump off the bed. She has also resigned to her fate. I can give her a Kong and leave her now and take the boys. That's cool, as I was on occasion if Rich wasn't home to babysit leaving poor Roscoe home with her. Of course, he was happy to have his Kong, but he sure loves his walks.
Trying a new strategy with Spur's table. I did some shaping work, no cue word at all. I brought him to the table and just waited. No down and I would toss him off. He leaped back on and if no down he got pushed off. Finally, he offered a down - CLICK and BIG jackpot!!! Tossed a treat off, then again he jumped back on and if he didn't immediately go down I pushed him off. We played this for a bit.
This morning I didn't say anything and stood there and he offered his down. :D I can't say it is lightening fast, but it's faster than it was. Trying to decide if I use a cue word and change it. I was saying DOWN and I can change it to FLAT. Or just nothing at all and wait him out. I am pretty sure in the heat of a trial I will say something. I know myself that well. But, I am going to try like heck to be really relaxed about it. Right now I am totally relaxed doing the training. I just stand there all relaxed and wait. It seems to be working. Time will tell. Today I will bring out different treats. High powered ones for the down and boring Charlee Bears for tossing off.
The table has been costing us precious seconds in USDAA. Thank goodness for AKC's positionless table. The count starts as soon as all four feet hit the table. They must stay on it, but they can stand, move around, down, sit, whatever. Of course, since we do so much USDAA I will be asking for a down, always. But, a slow down doesn't cost us anything.
What Temperature Is Too Hot To Walk Dogs?
9 months ago
I think that's a great plan!!! That's what I do (did) with Vito and it has really sped up his auto down. Problem is we almost never do the table in class and when we do it it's almost never raised. Since we have now only done 1 trial that has a table it's clearly something we need to go back and revisit. But I really like the auto down and only giving my dog a certain amount of time to do it in practice and pulling them off to make them redo if they don't go down fast enough. It's done in such a fun matter that it doesn't even stress Lance!
ReplyDeleteAKC trials should be great because then you can wait him out without it (hopefully!) costing you anything.