Backing up onto a platform

[snowbunny]

I’ve just started training this and took a little video today. Willow loves this game so much; look at her tail go! And she’s normally so good about waiting her turn, but she was too excited and didn’t want to wait

It’s not as evident in this video as it sometimes is, but they are so different in how they move; Willow places her feet really carefully as she goes back. The more on edge she feels, the more careful she is. She was totally chilled out in this session so you don’t see it as well as sometimes.
In contrast, Squidge just backs up until she falls over the step. She was quite slow in this video, but she will usually run backwards and just tank her way onto the platform.

I had to laugh at the “outtakes” where she put her foot and then feet onto the chair. By rights, I shouldn’t have rewarded her for those but we’re just doing this for fun, so I did because she’s hysterical

Apologies for the running shorts - no-one needs to see that much of my legs!

 

[Lab_adore]

Oh they are so clever! As are you for training them so beautifully

 

[Leanne]

I love these videos! I hate how easy you make it look... but I love them anyway!

 

[Joy]

As you say, Willow is really enjoying herself. Isn't it interesting how different dogs find different tricks /activities fun. I mean I know Willow is liking the food reward, but it's clearly not just that - she's actually enjoying the experience. (I think Squidge thinks it's a bit of a bizarre thing to be asked to do!)

 

[HAH]

This is super to see, and particularly Willow's love of the game - that tail! She's super demonstrative with it, it's lovely. And little Squidge's approach is so different just as you say. Far more 'back back back oh there it is'! AND Ginny wonder-ears in the wings! Definitely encouraging; one day, one day...

 

[snowbunny]

I really like this method of teaching them to back up, as it doesn't involve any negative reinforcement - that is, I'm not making them feel uncomfortable by looking over them or leaning into them, which makes them move backwards to escape. The first stage is just have the dog sit nice and close in front of you, reward with the treat between your feet. As soon as they eat it, they will naturally back up to where they were, and you capture that with your click. Introduce the target and then you can increase distance. Try it, it's easy and fun!

I love it when Willow is engaged like this; if I don't set her up to succeed, she flattens very easily, so seeing her happy means I've succeeded; she understands the game and is feeling great about playing it

 

[HAH]

Try it, it's easy and fun

Definitely going to, thanks for the explanation (I was going to ask but didn’t want to always be saying “so how did you...”) I reckon Kipper’ll love it.

 

[snowbunny]

Always ask!

 

[MellowYellow]

That's great! I'm definitely going to practice that with Merlin. I've been working on walking backwards with him, so backing up onto a platform would be a great extension. Thank you!

Your house is looking lovely, by the way!

 

[snowbunny]

There's SO much work still to do! We have a kitchen now - in boxes still in the kitchen space while J is away. We're hoping he'll be safe to return with Shadow this weekend. Fingers crossed!

All of this outside are is going to be ripped apart and completely redone. When we first bought the place, you couldn't even see this area where I'm working, as it was waist-deep in grass. Every year I have to spend hours pulling up what's re-grown over the winter. That slope on the right hand side up to the gate is going to be covered in stepped decking. The "patio" area behind me is going to have a pagoda construction so we can have it completely open or as an outside room. We'll have fly netting curtains because the flies can be a bit annoying during the day at certain times of year when the local farmers are spraying or picking the fruit, and a retractable roof so we can have shade or not. Then in front of the house, we're going to take up all the pebbles and pave it all with some nice natural stone so it's still a bit higgledy piggledy.

You can't see here, but to the right of the picture above the olive tree, we've made a really pretty seating area with climbing flowers covering the wall. Those plants will become more established as the years go on. It's lovely there, always the choice of shade or sun and beautiful views over the mountains. And on the lower level, our lawn, which we're hoping will become nicely established over the winter; if it works out well, we'll use the same grass in lots of our other areas. It's only thirty-five square metres where we've put it as a test this year and it's taken an awful lot of water to try to get it established; once it's a real lawn, it's supposed to not need much watering at all.

We have lots of plans, but we're always very time poor. We could get people in to do it, but there's little fun in that. Luckily, we don't mind living like ruffians, and we at least have internet and a fridge stocked with wine!

 

[Jacqui-S]

Garden and video are both great!

 

[Stacia]

What made you want to live in the middle of nowhere in Spain? It looks idyllic and the plans exciting. I will have a go at teaching Rourke to back up

 

[snowbunny]

What made you want to live in the middle of nowhere in Spain?

We're antisocial

Actually, we love Andorra and the two seasons of Andorra; winter is busy for us with the ski season and there are loads of people (tourists and seasonal workers) around. It's quite chaotic, even though I tend to keep out of most of it. Summers there are quieter; a few people stay around all year, and there's an increasingly busy summer tourist season, with hiking, golf, mountain biking and family activities. The weather tends to be very sunny and warm without being too hot. Some summers we get daily storms, which is a bit tiresome, but such is life in the mountains.

However, autumn and spring can be pretty depressing. Grey and miserable, just like England. We can get snow showers when we don't want them and big hail storms. It varies year to year and some years it's quite delightful, but we had a couple of back-to-back miserable years "off season" and so we decided to look for somewhere to spend the spring and autumn. We found this place, which is perfect, especially now we have the dogs, which we didn't when we first started looking. We are in the middle of nowhere, with 7 hectares (17 acres) of our own land (one acre of which is securely fenced around the property so the door can be left open all day for the dogs to go in and out as they choose), and I can walk for hours through the local trails without seeing another person. We also have some spectacular walking country around us. It's a really beautiful part of the country. On the other hand, we are only a 6 minute drive from the nearest supermarket and we can walk from the nearest town if we want a night out at a restaurant - it's about 5km away. We're also only 40 minutes from our largest big city, Tarragona, which means we can get materials etc for the house. There are smaller builders' merchants in the local town which we use as much as possible, but when we need specialist things or something in bulk, it's far cheaper to go to the city.
For now, we're here pretty much all the time because of all the work that needs doing on the place, but we'll likely end up splitting our time a bit more once it's finished so that I can escape the hottest time and enjoy some mountain hiking which I do miss from being here.

It's only about three hours between our two properties, so it's quite doable to go there and back for a weekend if needs be.

 

[UncleBob]

For some strange reason Harv really likes reversing

He'll often reverse in front of us in the house instead of walking normally and the dog-walker has told us how Harv likes to reverse through kissing gates when they are out.

At doggie gym the trainer wanted to see whether we could get Harv to reverse up a 'peanut pyramid' (*) as none of her other clients' dogs had managed it - it took a couple of attempts but, with suitable instruction from @Mrs UB, he did it! We were all so proud of the little chap. He seemed so pleased and happy with himself having made it to the top. I would have taken pictures but I'd been enlisted to help keep the peanuts stable!

* The peanuts are large rubber inflated items in the shape of, you guessed it, peanuts. About knee-height when lay horizontally. The pyramid is three of these peanuts - two as the base and one on top. Think of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place podiums at a sporting event.

 

[Stacia]

@snowbunny, that sounds idyllic. From the photos I imagined it miles and miles from anywhere and quite arid. It must be wonderful to be able to walk miles and not meet anyone else and have the dogs behind you, bliss.