Raising Ragnar 17th Instalment

March 2019

The barking happens with the paint roller too if the distance increases, he will also sometimes run half way and look back at me as if to see if that is enough!!

He is very motivated by the ball but doesn’t see the point of working first 😊

I have also introduced left and right directions using two balls.  He is very steady when I lay out the exercise and is going to the correct ball when indicated, so far so good.

His lead work is still a bit hit and miss, if I have a couple of days where we don’t do lead work then I can see a difference and we have to work it back up again.

I have had a small break through with the hand delivery.  I have managed to teach Ragnar to deliver the ball to hand using a second ball to reward the first ball delivery.  This seems to have helped him not to go into possessive mode when I ask for the ball.

Tomorrow I plan to try to do the two-toy game with one dummy and one ball and see if he gets hold of that.

The two-toy game with the dummy has helped to reduce the barking and so I am just throwing the dummy short distances and letting him get it and rewarding with the ball.  His steadiness with the ball is fine so I’m not worried about bringing that back in later.

The ball hand delivery is getting stronger so I now wont throw it again unless he gives it to my hand.

I have been working on retrieving balls when both the dogs are there.  Putting one dog in a sit stay and then sending the other dog for a retrieve.  Erik is happy to do this but Ragnar initially broke his stay when Erik went.  I recalled him and re-cued the sit stay and then rewarded him when Erik returned.

It took three attempts and then he understood not to go.  Ragnar will now sit and stay whilst Erik sets off for a retrieve.   I am currently increasing the time he waits until eventually he will have to wait until after Erik has delivered the ball.  Ragnar is rewarded for staying with his release word followed by a ball throw.

Another month has gone by and we did some more training with friends.  I hunted Ragnar and had a friend fire some shots every now and again.  He stopped every time on the whistle and was steady when I threw out a ball and waited to be released to get it.  I was very pleased as his hunting stayed strong even with the interruptions.  I was putting balls out for him to find as we went along.  Really chuffed with this, all the patterns that he has been learning came together well today.

I need now to teach stop to thrown article unless you hear ‘Ready’ first so that this will also strengthen his stop and wait.

I have also started a bit of work adding value to being in heel position.  I have started with some stationary work and a small amount of on the move.  I think this will be a long job!

Ragnar came out to do another crate games session today.  We moved out into the field for the first time and I put him in a fabric crate.  I had the door open to start with but he found that a bit too difficult and popped his head out of the door, so I closed the door and let him settle.  After about 10 mins he managed to lie down so I opened the door again and he remained settled.  At one point I looked over and he was lying flat out on his side with his eyes shut!  Result.  He is starting to realise that nothing exciting is going to happen 😊

Also, I did some more retrieving with both the boys, and Ragnar managed to stay without moving until after Erik delivered the ball to me.  Another step in the right direction!

The picture is proofing the stay!!