Training Diary Day 13-16

Day 13

I trained Erik’s dinner and we worked more on crate games. Moving between not coming out when distractions are around and releasing out of the crate and sending back into the crate and doing this with a toy under my arm.

If Erik started to squeak then I just shut the crate door and went and did something else for a short time. He is making some progress so I will carry on at this level until he has it cracked.

Day 14

We did some stopping to a thrown toy or dummy whilst walking and also when hunting. This went well, a couple of mistakes but mostly getting good responses.  Need to keep practicing this.  I also started building a permanent blind in a park where we regularly walk.  I need to get him to lock on to a marker, a tree in this case, and run towards that.   We are at day 1 of this so he managed to go and find the dummy but it was obvious that he hadn’t targeted the tree.  This will also be a work in progress.

Later we worked on stop whistle and a Whippit toy (Flirt pole). Erik is at the stage where I can release him to a stationary or slowly moving toy on a whippit and then sometimes allow him to get the toy and sometimes whistle for a stop.  He is mostly getting it correct.  He sometimes gets a bit carried away and the whistle doesn’t register.  The toy is then lifted out of reach.  If he does a good job then he is clicked and released to the toy and we have a game of tug.

Day 15

No training

Day 16

Progress 🙂  A tiny step forward.  Today we were doing more consolidation with the stage that we are at with crate games.  Some of the time I am working on distractions with the door open and he gets rewarded for not coming out; some of the time I am working on the collar grab game where he is released, comes to me, has a treat and I grab his collar then send him back to the crate, sometimes with a toy under my arm sometimes not; the last piece of the puzzle is the change yer mind game where as soon as Erik gets into the crate after the collar grab game he is released straight away to come out and play with the toy.  Today he managed most of the time with no noise only two small squeaks.  He also managed multiple collar grab games in a row without being broken up with distraction reps.  This is the first time he has managed that with no squeaking and also he managed quiet sends back to the crate after toy play which also hasn’t been happening.  So very happy today.