Training Diary Day 213 – 227

Day 213-217

We have had several sessions training retrieve work and the bucket cue discrimination game. Today I started using the crate as the place to leave Erik whilst I was setting up the next exercise.  We had a few self-releases but he worked it through and was happy to stay in there with no noise whilst I set up each exercise.  I need to really push this when I am working on my own in preparation for working with other dogs around whilst we are training.

In the background we have been working on the staying out of the kitchen when asked and staying on his bed during meal times. This is making huge strides and Erik is now starting to offer going out of the kitchen and staying out when he sees me start to either cook or load the dishwasher.  This is great as he is a dog who really wants to be involved in everything that I’m doing and it also shows that the value in offering self-management is increasing 🙂

Day 218 -227

Erik managed two hours with the door open again and in the last session managed to be quiet and remain in the crate with the door open whilst I threw a dummy for another dog and the dog went to retrieve it. Very impressed!

Found a really good place to do ‘Crate Games’ on one of my local walks. There is a pile of logs that has been made into a horizontal climbing frame for children.  This has several areas that are completely bounded by logs and there is a chipped bark covering to the play area which is a great place to leave Erik whilst I go and set up some training exercises.   Today we worked on the sending to bed, collar grab game and the change your mind game and added throwing dummies and ball as a distractions and he nailed all of it.  We also did some just hanging out after I had put the dummies out and I waited until Erik had stopped being so intently focused on where he thought the dummies were.  He had a tiny whinge and then offered to lie down or lean against my leg in a sit.

Looks like we have found the next level 🙂

We visited the vets and Erik was much more chilled out whilst we were waiting. No noise at all and no jumping on me.