Puppy Utility class was filled with all kinds of different puppies, mostly a bit older than Boomer, some younger. There was a Collie, Golden Retriever, Black Russian Terrier, Italian Greyhound, Sheltie, Bearded Collie, a baby Field Spaniel that was too cute for words and one beautiful brindle & white Borzoi. Oh yeah, I am partial! There may have been a couple more but I was busy with the brindle beast.
Shelley started class by showing everyone the concept of the clicker and explained that she was no purist but found the clicker to be useful in training. Great because we like the clicker! We worked on “touch” the target and then moved to clicking for retrieve on a crumpled paper towel. Boomer liked the paper towel because it smelled like hotdogs. He wouldn’t bring it to me though like he does with toys at home.
We spoke about heeling and played “find heel” and then what to do with conformation dogs and gaiting. Basically it is just putting a command on where the heel target is (where the dog is at and looking at you) versus trotting and looking forward which is required for gaiting. So you reward for looking away from you on gaiting and add a command to that. No idea what command I will choose…
There was a bit of discussion on stacking and teaching fronts. I think both can be taught I just need to make sure I am very consistent and clear on the commands. The last thing that we ran through were “go outs” and these should prove lots of fun.
Today I want to work on stacking, retrieving and doggie zen. Boomer still guards his tasty resources more than is acceptable.
Oh! and today is picture day: 14 weeks old today yea!!! I will post that later on when my hubby gets home and can take a photo!
more to come…
Leigh
I use “Heel” for formal heel position and attention, and “Strut!” for conformation gaiting – speed and head position. Also have the show lead in different places for the down&back and the go-around, so there’s an equipment cue for each. HTH.
Do you have an idea for a stacking command??