2010-04-21

Is my dog steady?

The short answer is no.  The answer I feel compelled to give is "yes" because we still have a 95% success rate.  Two days in a row I took Bailey to the lake to fetch bumpers.  She adores fetching bumpers, she lives to fetch bumpers, she would do it all day long if I let her.  She's also fabulous at problem solving.

My dog walks at heel, waiting for me to stop walking, she promptly sits at heel and plants herself.  She then stays sitting while I throw the bumper, with no cues from me (see how brilliant she is, moving dogs don't get throws, and moving dogs don't get released for the bumper).  

I had two breaks today, one on land, one on water.  (I still can't determine what makes her break, but we're working through it.)  Both times I called her back, she did NOT return to me on the water one, which is the first time that has happened in at least a year!  She did return to heel position when called for the land one.  They were interspersed, and the others in between were beyond solid.  No movement, she never lost her mark, and she flew out there when cued.

If I can find the right person to reintroduce guns to her, I'll be feeling better about hunt tests.

Then we came home and she got a bath...

2 comments:

Eliz said...

http://clickertraining.com/events/index.php?action=ViewEvent&event_id=317

Megan said...

I know, I wanted to go SO badly! I've read a lot of what he's written and we could have used the practice with other trainers and dogs!