Nice Practice Today!

Last night, I worked on healing with Charlie. Since he follows me around anyway, I combined minimal targeting with capturing. He's starting to get the idea. I clicked/treated in place while moving when he was in the correct position with full eye contact. It seems to be working - including tight 180 corners. Based on trying several learning methods for heal, this seems to be working best for this particular dog.

Both dogs got to work today. As is typical, Charlie got more time than Sheila, but she has some time limits at this point anyway. If you work her too long, she shuts down, so I keep it short with her. We set-up the coffee table and a few other items to make a holding area in the living room. This meant that both dogs could see each other, but left 10 feet between the holding area and the working area. Then, I worked both dogs alternating every 20 minutes or so. I'm going to list by dog as its easier for me.

Charlie:

1. Shaping going around a cone 10 feet away while I sit in a chair. We're getting it, but its hard for him. He's NOT good at the going away part. This is a VERY clingy boy. Once you get him moving, he does pretty well. No where near being able to add a cue, but this is awfully hard for him. I admit, I did cheat. He already knows an informal "go"/"go around" command, and I used it several times to keep him moving. I am going to teach clockwise and counter clockwise behaviors, so need to decide what to call them. I may go with herding commands, as they already exist.
2. I was able to shape a fairly stylized "bow" behavior with paws between feet/nose to ground in just a few minutes. I'd like to refine this a bit more before adding a verbal cue, but this is coming along nicely.
3. Relaxation behaviors - a LONG way to go on this. However, I really think I'm going to have to move to a verbal marker to work on these - at least at first. The clicker gets him so excited, that he tends to be "on alert" the entire session.
4. Distance for sit/down - This again is hard for Charlie. Anything with distance is difficult. I worked with him in the holding pen with me pretty close (~3 ft away). He's getting it, including a drop down instead of a folded down. I really want that drop down at a distance! Looks like we may actually get there.

Sheila

1. Interaction with a cone: This is hard for Sheila. However, not only was I able to get a nose touch, but she knocked it over with her paw! I've had trouble getting a paw to even move, let alone target. Nice!
2. Find it: I threw a handful of treats across the room. She had to sniff out all of the treats. Good work for her, but something she's not very used to.
3. Sit/down: When I taught Sheila these originally, I never worried about distinction between the two. Right now, you get a sit for the first command, a down for the second command, and down on her side for a third command. Doesn't matter which command you use, that's what you get. I'm trying to get her to relearn these with full discrimination. She doesn't need to know the difference, but its good mental work for her. She's getting there, but it may take a while. She's had 12 years of history of no discrimination!