Bing Blog #6
| "Tricks & Trust" -- December 5, 2005 I just finished a little training session with Bing. I don’t do this nearly as often as I should, and I know that this is holding him back, somewhat. This boy is so smart that he learns in about 4 repetitions. I have been doing most of our training in natural environments and situations; loose leash walking from the car to the pet food store, for example. Or recall and ‘touch’, followed by ‘sit’ for treats on walks when other people or dogs are approaching. He’s awesome at that! One of my favorites is the sit-stay for the food bowl; I can put the food down, walk behind him, turn my back on him, and he’ll still wait until I release him. Fairly standard stuff, but it feels good! But for things like ‘settle’ or tricks, we just don’t put the time into it. Shame on me! Tonight our session began with me holding Bing on my lap (yikes! He’s getting big!) and Pete reaching out for him, waiting for his telltale ‘I’m waiting for the click’ look (a still head with a determined straight-ahead stare). I know that I can pretty much do anything to Bing at this point during these training sessions, so I am in the process of finding others who can be ‘the vet’. He is doing really well in these practice sessions; Pete was able to completely examine Bing’s ears, eyes, and teeth with about a 5 second duration before clicking. Yay! We have done these sessions with three different people, and with Bing either held in my arms, with him sitting in front of me, facing the same direction, and with me simply holding his collar. He is still not 100% still when hands approach during these sessions, and he does require some warming up, so we must continue these sessions before attempting cold trials. He has also discovered that sometimes people reach for his private parts…woo! He’s a bit suspicious of this, as we discovered the other night in handling class. I immediately tried to make the excuse for him that last Sunday, he got a sticker branch tangled in his tail and pants fur, and I’m sure some of the thorns came mighty close to the family jewels, but I know that this is all the same issue: TRUST the person touching you. More work is on the way! The other skills we worked on tonight included advanced ‘leave-it’s. This is where I drop a treat from about 4 feet up and tell him to leave it. He backs up, lies down (not required) and looks at me until I click and tell him to take it’ and toss him some other treats. He’s just great at this, and the time has come for me to start cold trials on this. We also free-shaped ‘head down’ (head on the floor while laying in a down position), ‘settle’ (roll a hip on the side) and ‘shout’ (make a barking motion without any noise)…I stole this from a student of mine, who taught his Skye terrier to do this! I loved it so much that the moment I saw Bing do it, I capitalized on it! In the meantime, he is learning an AWESOME stand stay, where I can back away to the end of the show lead and really show him off! By the time he’s ready to show, he is going to shine, for sure! His gaiting is also becoming polished, and he’s not gangly and crabbing like he used to. Smart boy. As for the car, Bing is now completely quiet when Acacia and I drive somewhere with him, or if it’s just he and I alone in the car. Today, we went with Pete, Acacia and Montana in the car and he was a bit barky for about the first minute or so, and then he completely calmed down. The car anxiety still exists, but it is diminishing. I have discovered that he really doesn’t like it when I close the hatch; I’m sure the air pressure is the cause of this, and I really don’t know how to change that. I’ve been reaching up for the hatch, pausing, telling him I’m going to close it, and then closing it gently. He seems to stop for a moment, look at me, make a quiet whimper, then settle. I know he’s not happy about this situation because his eyes are big. He gets a piece of a chewy when he gets in the car each time, to give him something to shred! For the past 4 days or so I have not been giving him any holistic or homeopathic calming agents, and I have noticed a slight increase in his agitation. Tomorrow I will begin using it again.! Ali Comment to the Webmaster about this story. Your comments may be posted. Comment to Ali in private. Return to the Main Blog Page. |
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