Outreach #1

My brain hurts. (and yours may too after reading this) I was at Outreach seminar #1 with Kim Collins this weekend. There is lots and lots of information to sort through now. Outreach is a really cool program that should theoretically help Wicca and I quite a bit. It is a series of three seminars over the year with the same instructor. All year you work with a training buddy and record keeper and when you get back to the seminar you should have improved somewhat. It is great for Sarah and I as we don't get instruction in our area- we can go to Calgary for lessons but not on a regular basis so this is the perfect thing. You can find out more on Outreach here: http://pawsitivesteps.ca/

Some things I can remember off the top of my head (without consulting with my notes that I left at home)

So- the number one thing I learned this weekend and can remember off the top of my head is- REWARD WHERE YOU WANT THE DOG TO BE. Sounds simple right? Wrong. For the life of me I don't know why I do this but unless I catch myself I reward my dog with her head up on contacts- and sometimes even right next to me- I should be rewarding her with her head down and/or away from me. I know this- and I still do it wrong.

Wicca's bar knocking is/can be triggered by my arms. Interesting eh? Kim noticed right away, and then my record keep noticed aswell. So basically if I do a fast or tight front cross cue my dog knocks the bar- if I hold the cue a little longer the bar stayed up...Interesting...

I have taught my dog to release on motion. And not just any motion...but head motion. Yup- a nod or turn of the head and my dog thinks she can blast away...

my table sucks...it took one trial for it to become a major issue...Wicca's not gonna know what hits her when I set up a table in the living room and she has to do a table 20 times a day ;o)

Some things that we did at the seminar that I am not sure I want to do:

Nose touch on contacts- I don't want a nose touch on my contacts. My dog has great contacts and we faded away the nose touch long ago

get rid of my arm flip. I LOVE my flip and use it often- Wicca was one of THREE dogs who got a really nasty (and I do mean nasty) weave entry due to my flip. Kim doesn't like it- not because I taught my dog to flip away from me but that she does it on an arm cue- she said that it can confuse the dog because any sort of arm cue should mean the dog comes into you. She said that a verbal cue would be better....hmmmm

to get better speed across the dog walk she had people race their dogs across- do a FC cue in the middle and have the dog jump off (a low dogwalk) I chose to skip this station. my handling sucks sometimes and if I do the FC cue late/early whatever my dog must ALWAYS complete the obstacle I have sent her to.

I signed Vito up for the puppy sessions and he had a pretty good time. There wasn't a lot of working time for the pups but I learned alot and now have some more ideas of what I need to do with Vito

We started with a shaping exercise- no luring, and you had 5 minutes to get your dog to lie down with his head on the ground. Vito did it and held it for three seconds ;o) He is pretty clicker savvy and tried hard to figure out what I wanted. She has some great ideas for foundation work and I am excited to implement some of them. We did lots of plank work and she really splits behaviours down for the dog.

I will bring my notes tonite or tomorrow and retype them aswell as construct a training plan- for each dog which I will post here- so that I will be reminded every day to work on it.