Jett is doing fabulous!!!

I am so pleased how Jett is doing with his lessons with Kellie Connel. We had a great session moving along in our layers of training. 

We warmed up doing our bop exercises. I walked Jett, then when he least expected, I bopped the side of his back leg, walked faster. Then had him touch my hand. He jumped up to my hand to bop it with his nose. Then fed him treats. We repeated this exercise a few times. Each time he was more animated and excited to do the exercise. 

After each exercise, Jett goes in a crate to rest, while Kellie explains the next exercise. 

We went back to the upside down bowl. Jett already knows how to do a 360 in both direction on the bowl.. so we were able to do a heeling exercise. 

To start. Jett put his front paws on the upside down bowl. I fed him for warm up. Then I had him pivot a 360 on the upside bowl. The pivoting is good for heeling exercises. He pivoted to move to my left side

From the upside down bowl,  Kellie had me toss a treat and say the word chase. It is important to do a cue word so they dont chase any treat. Jett chased the treat after the cue "chase", then I called him back to the upside down bowl, he put his front paws on it and pivoted to a heel position with my hand movement. 

A few times I pretended to throw my hand like I was going to throw a treat. I did not say chase. Jett jumped off the bowl, but he learned no treat was thrown. I only want him to go after a treat when I say "Chase". 

The next couple of times after throwing the treat, saying "chase" and calling him back to the upside down bowl, Kellie had me use more hand signals, a circular motion over the bowl to encourage Jett to pivot to perfect heeling position. After a few trials he was getting better at getting to heel position. 

Rest time for Jett. Kellie explains the next lesson. 

We put the platform out. We are going to have Jett go on the platform looking at me. I stuffed some mozzarella balls on my mouth. I say "look" for Jett to look at me and I spit out the cheese ball, and Jett eats it. This is a great exercise for focus to my face. I do this a few times, then throw the food and say "chase". Jett would get the treat, I walked to the other side of the platform and call Jett on the platform. I say "look" , spit out the ball, Jett got the cheese ball and intensely waited for the next one. A few cheese balls, I then said "chase", Jett ran to get the cheese ball, I walked to the other side of the short end of the platform, called Jett back up on the platform. Each time he started to trot back eagar to work. 

What a great exercise to get his obedience skills going. The little layers are getting us there. 

We did another obedience exercise. We did a heeling exercise. I said, "let's go" and when he came into heeling position on the left and bopped my hand that was straight in front.of him, I rewarded. This is a start.of heeling into.position. we only did this about 2-3 times. 

For our last exercise, Jett got to play with two flirt poles. This exercise is to build his prey and play drive. Jet has done the flirt pole a few times already with Kellie. This time we were going to do two. 

What Kellie did was picked up one flirt pole and encouraged Jett to play. He really showed more intense interest this time. She then played tug with Jett. The tug was on the side, not in the front. After a few seconds of play, Kellie grabbed the other flirt pole. Jett kept the first one while Jett chased the other. Eventually Jett let go, and played with the second flirt pole. Jett chased and had good fun, then Kellie played tug. Then Kellie picked up the other flirt pole. Jett chased snd had fun, then played tug. They went back and forth. Jett's activity with the flirt pole has significantly improved. His inner play is finally coming out. We are tapping into Jett's drive. Which we had a really slow start. To see this now, I am happy to see we are going to get some good play sessions out of Jett. We keep building. 

This was a successful session. His skills are being layered and building. Can't wait until the next session. 

Getting back to our lessons

It has been before the dark of winter I have had my lesson with Kellie Connel. Last time I saw her was last August..About 9-10 months ago. I am so glad we are back again. This was the first time Kellie saw Jett since he was neutered. She liked the change and what she saw in Jett. 

We started out with the bop exercise to warm up. Bopped him on his rump, I run another direction and when he follows me, I give him a treat. We did this a few times. 

While doing the bop, walking along my side, he was doing like he does when we do heels. I was happy to see this that he defaulted into this. 

Then our next exercise was to do the bop, then move away and have Jett Jump up and nose my fist. The first few times he wasnt that excited, then he really got into this exercise. He showed how he liked being engaged in this exercise. As time went on he got more engaged and animated.

A new exercise we did was to get Jett more focused on my face and to pay more attention to me. We want to get Jett more focused on me than the environment around him. We took string cheese and I bit 4 pieces to put in my mouth. I am to spit out a piece of cheese and have Jett catch the cheese. The first few tries, Jett kept missing the cheese, but after a few session he was catching the piece of cheese in his mouth. Then we changed the criteria that I would say a cue "look".Then spit the cheese out. I wasn't spitting the cheese as well and Jett was missing the cheese. Changing criteria you need to learn how to do the exercise again under new conditions. After a few tries, I would say "look," spit out the cheese and Jett would catch it. We finally.perfected our skill. 

So the homework is do the above 3 exercises in my house. In my front yard, on the side walk and at a parking lot.

So the bop exercise, touch my hand and spitting out food for them to catch to keep looking at me. 

For our fun ending exercise, we did the flirt pole with the rabbit pelt tied to the flirt pole. Jett's enthusiasm was more intense and he is getting more into chasing the toy. He has a lot of potential and glad he is liking playing with a toy.