Training Diary Day 238-242

Erik and his training buddy Gus 🙂

Day 240

I did some hunting with stop to shot today. Erik was much better, a small amount of noise but only minor squeaks instead of lots of barking and screaming.  I also asked him to take a break in the middle of the session and he offered to lie down, a small amount of squeaking but he did get to the point where he had switched off.  When I set him off again there was again only a very small yip rather than lots of barking.  His stops went well and I could stop him and walk over to him with no noise.

Today was a bit of a stake in the ground to see where he was up to. Not there yet but slow and steady progress in the right direction 🙂

Day 242

My day off today and so we have had time to do quite a bit of training. We went to see our training buddies again today.  Both dogs are working towards self-management and impulse control in exciting working situations.

We started off indoors again and Erik managed to settle fairly quickly in the pop up crate with the door shut.

When it was Erik’s turn to work we realised that the front of the pop up crate is not a very clear boundary so we put some pipe insulation on the base of the zipped door and that made it clearer. We did some basic crate work sending in and Erik has decided that stopping at the crate door, turning around and reversing in, is the best way to go!!!

More work needed on clarifying the boundary as he tends to stick his head out to be able to see better. I need to make up my mind whether it is OK for him to have his head out as long as his feet are in or if we need to have his head in also.  More thought needed on that one.

We also managed to do some work outside with the crate and that worked well. I still need to zip the door when we change areas until he settles and then I can unzip the door and he will stay in.  Probably need to do some work at home with the crate during meals etc. to get his understanding of the boundary.

We then went for a nice walk to blow away the cobwebs as it is very windy and a bit chilly today.

After that we went to visit my friend with her horse and Erik spectated in his crate whilst I helped my friend learn her dressage tests. He settled properly and even when I unzipped the door he stayed chilled out in the back of the crate.

Another good day’s training!