Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Day 61

Hops went to work with me today and was great when he was crated, great with people, but he was grumpy with an adolescent golden : (  He did play however with a papillion and a springer. He also met one of my favorite people, Kathy Sdao. She loved him of course!

At home I practiced calling Hops off of chasing Dillon (when they were running toward me) with great success. Calling him to me before I threw Dillon’s toy is still more difficult. The first time I had to walk almost all the way up to him before he broke his stare off of Dillon and could come to me. I slowly build distance back up and was then able to call him in pretty easily. I also worked on keeping him with me longer, not letting him go right back out to chase Dillon and he started to offer that a little by the end.

Hops had a stay lesson for dinner. I said stay often as I walked around and rewarded him for staying in a down. I do not want to have to say stay but I do want him to learn the word! I worked on distance first, getting to the point that I could walk out of sight, open a door to another room and go in, and return and he stayed. He made a couple of mistakes in the beginning but after he figured out the game he made no more. Then I worked on distractions like calling the other dogs to me, bouncing a ball, slapping udders on the floor (that got him), tossing cookies, running away, he was great. Then I put him in a sit stay and practiced being able to walk laterally away and towards him, in front of him and behind him, and having him not move a single paw. He could turn to look at me if I crossed to a new side, but no paws moving. In the beginning his left front paw wanted to move out a little but soon he was perfect, not budging an inch. Good puppy! We then worked on going to bed on cue, going to kennel on cue, then discriminating between the two. If my body language supported the correct object he went to it 100% if I was ambiguous he made mistakes. For the most part though I fully supported the object I was naming. After the lesson Hops was thirsty and the bowl was empty so it was a perfect time for a shaping lesson of picking up the bowl! He has done it before out of frustration so I know he can do it. I waited while he scratched at the bowl, then when he finally bit it I clicked and treated. I did not want to reward the same behavior too many times so after a few clicks for biting the bowl I held out and (after lots of pawing and talking!) he picked up the bowl a couple of inches! I clicked, jackpotted, and filled the bowl! Good puppy!

Hops had a couple of crazy play times with Ren today but was always able to come when called. He was always rewarded, then sent back to play more.

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Hops says his favorite Christmas gift was this really comfy Labrador chair!

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