Harv's first advanced class
Well, what a difference a week makes ...
As in the previous week, we started off with some heel work to help calm down the dogs. The initial objective was to heel in and out of some cones that had been placed about 5 meters apart - 4 cones in total - one dog at a time. This went reasonably well but I did struggle in places to keep Harv's attention - his ground sniffing, always a bit of an issue, seemed to be in overdrive. We then upped the challenge a bit by having two dogs heeling at the same time - each starting at opposing ends. This actually went better that the first exercise, perhaps Harv's focus had returned.
Stoopid UncleBob, you don't tempt fate like that! The next part was off-lead heeling and Harv barely moved forward a couple of paces before lurching off to the hedgerow for some super-intense sniffing! I tried to recall him but he was 'in the zone' with the smell and his hearing had shut down. Even after I had walked up to him and put his lead on he did not want to leave this spot and it took quite some effort, and a quick pee (Harv not me), to get him to move. We tried again and exactly the same thing happened
At this point the instructor suggested that I take Harv to a quiet (and hopefully less smelly!) spot to see if I could get his focus again as she didn't want him to keep repeating this behaviour (and I completely agree with this - it took us out of the class briefly but Harv was so far over threshold that we would achieve nothing by continuing as he was).
As I walked away the obsessive sniffing continued and it was a huge effort to get him focused. However, once we reached a quiet spot and did some figure of eights, and some squares, and then some random turns this way and that, he was happily trotting along off-lead virtually glued to my left knee. OK, back to the class.
Next up was a straight-forward retrieve - walk with the dog to the second cone, leave the dog in a sit and take the dummy to the third cone and drop it there, return to the dog and send him to retrieve the dummy. Simples, right? Nope, exactly the same thing again
At this point I suggested putting the long-line on as I really didn't want this behaviour being repeated as Harv has always been pretty strong on his retrieves. The instructor agreed that if I thought this might happen again (which I did) then that was the best approach. Of course, as soon as the feckin' long-line was on it was as if the very attractive smell had disappeared! So, relieved was I that I actually messed up part of this exercise when we had multiple dummy retrieves and were meant to be getting our dogs to 'Go back' for the second dummy - I was too slow on my verbal instruction and Harv had already changed direction from Back to Right. You just can't get the staff can you?
We then did some more Stop work in a similar manner to the exercise last week. Harv was actually not too bad at this part (we had gone to the opposite side of the field to the really interesting smelly hedgerow) but I apparently need to work on my timing. It was explained to me that because Harv is built like he is (he isn't heavy by Labrador standards at around 33kg but is very solid/muscular and very fast
) I need to build in some anticipation time - like trying to stop a massive container ship at sea, you have to start braking way before where you want to stop!
Finally, we finished with some clicker Hold training. "Harvey has been trained using a clicker hasn't he?" says the instructor. Given the way the session had gone so far I thought about saying 'No', especially as I have failed miserably to get a reliable Hold using clicker training, but the Jiminy Cricket on my shoulder made me say 'Yes'. However, apart from being hugely excited at getting some attention from somebody other than me (he is such a flirt!) he was absolutely brilliant!! While the instructor sat in a chair Harv sat when asked to sit, he held the dummy in his mouth whilst simultaneously wearing what appeared to be a massive grin, and released the dummy when asked. Click and treat. She repeated this a few times in the chair before then doing some walking Holds and Releases. More Click and treating. Harvey still grinning
"Now that is how it's done" says the instructor "Harvey has done this before though - it will probably take the rest of you a few weeks to get to this stage but keep working at it". I was torn at this stage between thinking he was a little 
, for doing this so well for the instructor when we had always struggled in our previous attempts, and thinking how proud I was at what an excellent demonstration he had just provided. I went with the latter - after the start we had had I was glad to finish on a high. 
Well, what a difference a week makes ...
As in the previous week, we started off with some heel work to help calm down the dogs. The initial objective was to heel in and out of some cones that had been placed about 5 meters apart - 4 cones in total - one dog at a time. This went reasonably well but I did struggle in places to keep Harv's attention - his ground sniffing, always a bit of an issue, seemed to be in overdrive. We then upped the challenge a bit by having two dogs heeling at the same time - each starting at opposing ends. This actually went better that the first exercise, perhaps Harv's focus had returned.
Stoopid UncleBob, you don't tempt fate like that! The next part was off-lead heeling and Harv barely moved forward a couple of paces before lurching off to the hedgerow for some super-intense sniffing! I tried to recall him but he was 'in the zone' with the smell and his hearing had shut down. Even after I had walked up to him and put his lead on he did not want to leave this spot and it took quite some effort, and a quick pee (Harv not me), to get him to move. We tried again and exactly the same thing happened
At this point the instructor suggested that I take Harv to a quiet (and hopefully less smelly!) spot to see if I could get his focus again as she didn't want him to keep repeating this behaviour (and I completely agree with this - it took us out of the class briefly but Harv was so far over threshold that we would achieve nothing by continuing as he was).As I walked away the obsessive sniffing continued and it was a huge effort to get him focused. However, once we reached a quiet spot and did some figure of eights, and some squares, and then some random turns this way and that, he was happily trotting along off-lead virtually glued to my left knee. OK, back to the class.
Next up was a straight-forward retrieve - walk with the dog to the second cone, leave the dog in a sit and take the dummy to the third cone and drop it there, return to the dog and send him to retrieve the dummy. Simples, right? Nope, exactly the same thing again
At this point I suggested putting the long-line on as I really didn't want this behaviour being repeated as Harv has always been pretty strong on his retrieves. The instructor agreed that if I thought this might happen again (which I did) then that was the best approach. Of course, as soon as the feckin' long-line was on it was as if the very attractive smell had disappeared! So, relieved was I that I actually messed up part of this exercise when we had multiple dummy retrieves and were meant to be getting our dogs to 'Go back' for the second dummy - I was too slow on my verbal instruction and Harv had already changed direction from Back to Right. You just can't get the staff can you?
We then did some more Stop work in a similar manner to the exercise last week. Harv was actually not too bad at this part (we had gone to the opposite side of the field to the really interesting smelly hedgerow) but I apparently need to work on my timing. It was explained to me that because Harv is built like he is (he isn't heavy by Labrador standards at around 33kg but is very solid/muscular and very fast
) I need to build in some anticipation time - like trying to stop a massive container ship at sea, you have to start braking way before where you want to stop!Finally, we finished with some clicker Hold training. "Harvey has been trained using a clicker hasn't he?" says the instructor. Given the way the session had gone so far I thought about saying 'No', especially as I have failed miserably to get a reliable Hold using clicker training, but the Jiminy Cricket on my shoulder made me say 'Yes'. However, apart from being hugely excited at getting some attention from somebody other than me (he is such a flirt!) he was absolutely brilliant!! While the instructor sat in a chair Harv sat when asked to sit, he held the dummy in his mouth whilst simultaneously wearing what appeared to be a massive grin, and released the dummy when asked. Click and treat. She repeated this a few times in the chair before then doing some walking Holds and Releases. More Click and treating. Harvey still grinning
"Now that is how it's done" says the instructor "Harvey has done this before though - it will probably take the rest of you a few weeks to get to this stage but keep working at it". I was torn at this stage between thinking he was a little , for doing this so well for the instructor when we had always struggled in our previous attempts, and thinking how proud I was at what an excellent demonstration he had just provided. I went with the latter - after the start we had had I was glad to finish on a high. 
You could be on to something there - the two entire males in the group certainly seemed to be the most distracted.