Sunday, June 13, 2010

Training Challenge Week 1

We told Marie over a Resqtails that we would do a training challenge with her and try to go somewhere new once a week to train. I didn't go somewhere exactly new this week, but on Friday we did go to Bindi and Clever's house. I was not comfortable there last time so mom thought it was a new-enough place.

Mom brought my target plate and wanted to just work on simple stuff with me. She raced me to my target on the flat, then we added a jump and then two jumps. I tried it with the weaves too. I did do better and was faster and more confident there than last time. I wandered around the yard on my own a little and even went potty. I growled at Clever some because she was bugging me! Mom says she is a very respectful puppy, but I thought she could just leave me alone. Bindi doesn't bother me at all though. We also played the recall game and I had to go running to mom even if Bindi or Clever was already with MY mom. I am still not thrilled about it, but I did it. I even went to Bindi's mom when she called me (it didn't hurt that she had salmon!).

So nothing earth-shattering but a better outing for me than the first time. We are going to keep using Bindi's yard as one of my training challenges until I am much more comfortable there and act more like myself.

It's been very humid and rainy here for the past three days. I don't feel like staying outside for very long. Yesterday mom brought 4 of my weave poles into the living room and I practiced some entries. In the evening I helped mom and dad make a new little addition to our front garden in order to make room for a few new plants (like lavendar that smells so good). There are some bees who apparently have a nest under our front stoop and they were not happy about the digging! They were dive bombing all three of us and dad even got stung! Ouch! I was relieved that it wasn't me! Here's a photo - see the stake in the ground at the left side of the picture? That's where I was tied with my leash so I couldn't chase any cars. I was really good out there and just laid in the shade and watched people and cars go by and never barked or anything. Mom put another flower in next to the irises this morning and now all we need is some mulch to finish it.


Hope you all are having a good weekend!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

10 comments:

Unknown said...

What a nice idea to train in a different place each weeek :)

It's always rainy and humid here but Eva loves it when the wind blows and ruffles her coat :)

Sara said...

That is a great idea to go to your friend's house to play! I'm glad it went a bit better this week.

Your garden looks beautiful!

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

OOH Ricky it is so hard not to chase cars, so good for you just relaxing and I am sooo glad you did not get stung by those nasty bees. A new place to train each weeks sounds like a marvelous challenge and sounds like you got off to a great start!!
I LOVE lavendar, the garden looks marvelous and the grass looks so pretty and green!

Sagira said...

Good idea to train in a new place. :)

Marie said...

Super news that your visit at Bindi Sue and Clever's house went so much better this time.

I don't think it has to be a totally new place each week either. I think it's just good to get out and train in a place that we might not be comfortable with, until it gets easier for us. :-)

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

I'm panting along with woo!

It was just plain gaspy nasty here!

Good lukhk with the training challenge!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

Diana said...

Chasing cars, Miley's favorite thing. We have worked on it and worked on it but cant break it. The yard looks very nice. To bad about the bees nest. Im glad things went well at your friends house. Diana

Dawn said...

Your Mom and Dad did all the work and you got to just lay in the shade and watch!? How cool! (Literally!)

The garden looks very nice, hope you get to give us a picture of it after the mulch is in too!

Chasing cars? You still doing that? Katie too. SIGH. I can't break her of it either..but am still trying.

Unknown said...

Oh - going to new places to train ia a great idea! I always rotate Honey's walks and try never to do the same walk 2 days running - and this means we practise her daily training in different places every day. I also try to make sure that she always goes to new places and has new experiences, at least once a month, if not more often! I think even if they're not doing fancy training - just walking in new places and enforcing general leash manners & calm behaviour & self-control and practising basics like Sit & Down during the course of the walk is enough. For example, I always do a Down or Sit or Stan Stay while I take Honey's poo to a bin - so being on different walks means that she gets to practise her Stays in diff locations and for diff distances (coz bins aren't always close by). It's a great way to incorportate variety & challenge into your training just as part of your walk, since you know your dog will poo every day anyway so it's a good opportunity!

And if I notice her particularly interested in a new thing in a new environment, I'll take an extra minute to do some Heeling around it/in that area - to practise focus on me with that new distraction.

Hsin-Yi

Natasha said...

That's a great idea to go somewhere new each week, especially for agility dogs who trial!

The front garden looks beautiful! How did your mom train you to relax around cars? I could use some advice for Wall-e!