Training Yesterday

We had a small breakthrough yesterday. I've had a horrible time teaching Charlie to heel. Yesterday I switched to a combination of targeting (fingers near my face) and capturing. Success. I swear his look said, "really, you want me to look at you while we walk, okay". He might as well have shrugged, too. It needs some clean-up before I can name it, but at least he gets the idea now. I was also able to add some very pretty sits and downs.

We also worked on targeting (nose to fingers). I realized that I'd been letting this slip a bit. He did everything I asked, including up on his back feet, walk forward, walk around behind me, back up, and under my legs. All without a hitch. Where is the behavior when we go to school??? ARGH.

We've almost got the "go around the cone" in hand, too. I can't wait to see his face when I ask him to reverse it. Poor boy. To my amazement, he's now really offering behaviors to click like different head positions and placement in relation to objects, so things are going much faster. What changed? I have no idea what clicked, but wish I did. I have locked-up Sheila during Charlie's training (and the reverse). I knew that would relax things for him, but I didn't expect to get so many specifically offered options on his part. That brain really worked hard yesterday.

Sheila did really well, too. I worked her on targeting, and was able to get her to make a 180 degree turn around me - a big step for my baby doll. She also did some work with the game 100 things you can do with a cone. She's now offered a nose touch, a paw touch, and is even knocking it over! This from a girl who defaults to a down position within a few seconds of no instruction. She's much more cuddly these days too!

All in all, a really nice training session.