Jett is blossoming

This lesson was 

July 22, 2020

Today's lesson I thought of Mickey a lot. I remember the years of building a bond. It takes years to build that bond with your dog. All the training, all the practice, all the learning, a big chunk of  time involved. Years of training builds relationship. Years of positive training builds strength with your dog. Then they leave us because they dont live long enough.

We get the next puppy and that bond takes years to build again. 

I am building that bond with Jett mow. 

Jett's lesson started with a continuation from last lesson of getting him to turn around. Last lesson he would be facing one way and I went to his tail. He would turn around. The idea is to get the dog to follow you. You can read the last blog for that previous lesson. 

Today's lesson we expanded on the last lesson. I am standing perpendicular to Jett. I keep him perpendicular with a treat in my hand. I go to his rump, tap the side of his rump with two fingers, say boop, click with a clicker and run straight back just to get him turned to follow me. This running creates excitement. At first, Jett was with a puzzled face. I then did tis exercise going the other direction. I fed the other way to get him faced the other direction and did the boop game again by taping on his rump, saying boop, clicking at the same time and running behind his rump a short distance and then feeding a treat. This started to create more 

engagement as I did this exercise.  

 

The more I did this back and forth, the more Jett was, "Oh! I get this game!" Jett became more engaged. It developed into a nice chase game and Jett was right there. 

The next lesson, the instructor put two upside down bowls down. They were target points. Jett has done circles on bowls, so he explored the bowls as if, I have done this before. He explored both bowls and then front paws on one. I treated him several times. Then "whooo hooo" ran to the the other bowl and when his feet jumped on the bowl, i treated again. We went back and forth with excitement a few times. Then when Jett offered a circle behavior,  we knew we could start him doing circles on the bowls. So now offer a circle and ""Whoooo hooo" to the other bowl, have him circle and run back to the other bowl. 

Now the next step, instructor removed one of the bowls. We went from one bowl to the empty space. I held my hand up and said "touch" Jett jumped up to touch my hand. Yay!!! We ran back to the bowl, had Jett do a circle on the bowl, then "yippe" l run to the space, have Jett touch my hand. Then ran back to the bowl to do a circle. The other bowl was put back down, had Jett run to it, and do another circle then instructor picked up the other bowl. Now we ran to the space, jett touched my hand when I said touch. A few reps then the other bowl picked up and relays back and forth touching my hand in empty spaces,, no nowls. Engaging game you can play anywhere to get his attention. 

For the last lesson, we did the flirt pole. We used a different kind with a smaller rope. When the instructor moved the flirt pole around, this time Jett didn't use his feet. He did chase with more intensity with his mouth. He has improved from last lesson. He eventually started using his mouth more. This flirt pole game is building slowly a drive in the right manner, it isnt all just chasing a toy, but how the movement is controlled. More mouth prey work. 

At the end, Jett was over the toy in prey fashion. I dropped treats for Jett, then put the treats a few feet away, and instructor put toy away. We make picking up toy positive so it is never a take. 

Homework.......

Do three exercise in a new place but mostly quiet to keep distractions down.