Dog Club

Candy

Candy

Biscuit Tin Guardian
Location
West Yorkshire, UK
Atemas said:
This is lovely to read Helen. I am impressed you give Cassie all these opportunities. I confess I have lapsed badly into just walking with Red and not playing games. Yes I interact with her a lot but I have become lazy in that respect
Click to expand...
But having met Red, she is clearly a very happy girl and I think the key thing there is that you interact with her, more than 'a lot', infact pretty much constantly, just as I do with Joy. I think training and trying new things together is great fun, and can be a really good way to build your relationship with a dog, particularly when the dog is young (I still remember how much Joy and I got out of Flyball when she was younger) but I also think you can't beat the constant day to day interaction with a dog for giving reassurance that he/she is a loved and valued member of the family/pack, which is probably what they want just as much as we do.
 
Selina27

Selina27

Location
Herefordshire, UK
We had our third session of Fun Friday two days ago, we had the co owner and Head Trainer/Behaviourist taking it as one of the girls had to go and collect an award. It's ridiculous but I always feel like Headmaster is there and I must up my game to impress him :rofl:
He's such a quiet unassuming chap who definitely speaks more dog than human!

To start with we did a simple Rally course which was fun -- I thought that Cass had learnt "front" really well, which she has at home, but in a different setting -- :confused: maybe not so much. So we worked on that for a bit. It didn't incorporate stand -- which we are really not getting :shake: but we try. I find that I am really bad at adding duration, so I am trying to get better. We were complimented on our heelwork however, especially when we did the serpentine, so I'll take that!

Then we did some "thinking" games, ideas for occupying their brains on short dark winter days such as we have now. Two discs a couple of feet apart with treats on, they get marked for eating it and then sort of yoyo bewtween them, working out thats what they have to do to get the reward. I'm not explaining it very well, but it certainly did get them thinking! They also learnt to ring a bicycle bell only getting released to the treat if they use their paw and don't shove it with their noses!

Next week is the last one, we will be doing Hoopers which is definitely fun!
 
Selina27

Selina27

Location
Herefordshire, UK
We are not long home from the last of our Fun Friday sessions.
Today we did a small Rally course, some Hoopers and Scentwork. The Rally and Hoopers where alongside one another -- I was a little bit disappointed with how we did the Rally, Cass was excited and easily distracted. But I realise that sometimes it's hard for her -- should she flip the discs for the serpentine for treats as she did last week for brain games etc ? Or walk to heel as requested through the serpentine?
She loved the Hoopers - having been dubious about going under them the first week, but she has no problem with the tunnel whether straight or bent and appears to love it . It's amazing -- she last did that a whole seven years ago !!!!

We finished doing some scentwork, which I was going to skip but I'm so glad I didn't, I struggled before to really recognise her indication and was a bit upset because I felt I know her so well so how couldn't I do that. I know she has a powerful nose which is constantly working. Tonight the lovely young instructor really helped me , told me to give Cassie more time and not to mark until Cassie gave a strong, clear indication otherwise I was muddying the waters. It gave me the confidence to wait and by the end we had both calmed down and she was able to indicate clearly and just look at me. As if to say, I've got this.

They are going to run a Hoopers course in the New Year -- I might just sign up! It has been a Fun course, and a couple of the other ladies are keen and good fun which adds to the overall enjoyment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top