Week of June 16th

Last week was a light training week for us.  Mostly we worked on Protocol for Relaxation, distractions, Bring It, Give It, nose touch and paw touch.

We have gotten to day 11 of the PFR and it was the hardest for Luke. I had to walk out the door, disappear from view and ring the door bell. He broke his stay and alert barked. So far in the PFR we had not had a trigger to brake a stay and I knew this would be a challenge for him. So we stopped at that point and I modified the day so we could address it. I brought him out to the hall way put him in a down stay and rang the door bell then we worked our way into the house. For Luke it helped him to know where the sound was coming from. This week we are starting on day 12 of PFR (there are 14 days in the PFR)

Nose touch is coming along well we are working on cueing it now. The cue we are using is "nose". I have learned that I can not work "nose" and "paw" in the same session. When in doubt Luke always defaults to using a paw, so I am working on differentiating the two through cues and tools. I will be teaching Luke to nose touch using a pointer and for paw touch a post it note...so there will be a visual difference in tools.

Paw touch is really coming along nicely. We have cued it to "paw" and we are working now on adding in post it notes (instead of my hand) for the target. He is able to stand up and paw the height at which most push plates are placed. I bought a push light to use as a target for later on, it seems to have the same pressure needed to activate and makes a clicking noise as well.

We also worked on Bring it, Give it and a little on Get It.  Luke loves to pick stuff up in his mouth. So we play fetch alot and I use bring it and give it. The other day I dropped a receipt on the floor and Luke looked at it then me. I said Get it Luke and was shocked when he picked it up and then gave it to me.  Now more than likely this is not something that Ara will need as a task for him, but he enjoys it so much that I will be adding it into his training.

Outings were limited this week just due to our families schedule.  We of course had our Rally Class and CGC Class. Now a fun story from his CGC class. I have told them that Luke is the king of "drop it" but they actually got to see it in class. He was chewing on a bully stick and it was our turn to work on a skill. I stood up and Luke tried to bring his chewy with him. I told him to drop it and he spit is out as fast as he could and added a little flip on it so it landed back where he was sitting and then promptly look at me with a smirk. He knew he just showed off.
 Luke also got to have a good time at the dog park and puppy daycare. We went to petsmart as well (twice).....do you know how many treats and chewies you go through when training a puppy....it is a lot.