Progress!

To work on improving loose leash walking, we've been taking short walks of 10-30 minutes at a time, for just over a week now. Tonight, I saw the first huge mark of progress in Lotte: I was able to get her from the car, onto the agility field for class, with no pulling! Was she as focused on me and as close to me as I'd like? No, but she kept a loose lead, didn't try to dart ahead, and did so with other dogs and horses around. I'm especially proud, because I didn't expect her to keep her cool around so much distraction, so soon. This is just huge for us. :)

It helps to walk nicely first...

In our agility class, I noted that Lotte is far from the least well-trained on leash, which gives me a little bit of hope. I mean, at least I can hold on to my dog! Ask me about the Irish setter who was up in my face at my car window yesterday.

Anyway, I'm taking a step back from heeling with Lotte. I've been complaining a lot lately about her getting excited on leash, and acting like a fool (codephrase for pulling), and the dogs in class have spurred me into finally dedicating myself to changing that.

The biggest problem is that when I take her for a walk, I tend to slip into "I just want to walk" mode, especially if we're somewhere like out on the urban trails. So, I let her get away with it. Lotte, being a typical dog, takes a mile with that little inch of leeway I give her, and we're back to square one again.

With how quickly she's advanced on the tippy board (I think I'm going to upgrade the height of my board today), I have no doubts that she'll catch on quickly. I'll begin working on a formal heel after I get her to the point of nice, relaxed, loose walking in all sorts of distractions. It helps to know how to walk before you start running, after all.

Targeting the Possibilities

I recently taught Lotte to hand target, and even more recently, have begun playing with using the target as a training tool.

Point in case, the tippy board. I had Lotte stepping up on it from the side, but could not convince her to come straight up onto it from the end. Finally, it occurred to me to use the hand target - success! I am now getting her to walk across the board (tipping it each time) without problem. This was only after a few days of working with the board. As an aside, I'm glad that we've been working on it, because if we hadn't, I bet she would probably still just be pawing at the board in class tomorrow. As it is, I think we may be ready to up the size of our tippy board soon (but I'm going to wait until we move up to the next size board in class).

I'm using the hand target to teach her to "beg", and it occurred to me that I can finally teach her to come to front, by using my hand target to draw her in straight! I'm also starting to work on the formal heel using the hand target, which was actually my original intention when I began teaching it. I picked that idea up here: http://loridrouin.webs.com/twelvestepheeling.htm   (great resource).

I'm super-excited about the possibilities we have now. I've never been a fan of guessing games with Lotte, or just waiting for her to get it right... having such a simple tool to be able to tell her what I want to do/where I want to be is great. Really, why didn't I think of this sooner?

Tipping the Board

Now that Lotte's agility classes are underway, I've already identified something to work on at home: the teeter. We're only working on tippy boards right now, but since Lotte was so less-than-enthused with that in class (the tunnels, on the other hand, she loved), I decided it's something we should work on at home.

So, I built a tippy board. I got the idea for the construction here: Agility Adventures: Making a Teeter Board

Our board, because Lotte is just starting out, is on a 2" diameter piece of PVC. I'm focusing right now on just getting her used to the board shifting underneath her. In just a couple of days, we've progressed from one paw pushing the end down, to crabbing across with just her two front feet, to actually getting all four feet on the board. Tonight, I got her to walk across the board (it's 4' long) a couple of times. Yay!

Lotte, by the way, had decided in class that the tippy board was something to be jumped over, rather than walked on. 

Schnauzerism #1: Because food in a ball is better than food in a bowl

Schnauzerisms: noun - Lotte's funny little quirks that make me smile

My dog is weird. I offer her kibble to her in a bowl, and she turns her nose up at it. Stick it in her atomic treat ball, and it's gone in 5 minutes.

I guess someone just likes to play with their food.