Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Waits and weaves

Tom and I had a lesson with Nancy this morning and her plan was to work on our wait routine and our weaves with some clicker work thrown in, that'll teach me to keep a blog!

After watching me do what I normally do we had a go at firstly getting me to RELAX a bit as Tom was really picking up on me being a stiff as a board, I do try to but I think after the last couple of lessons I've got a bit stressed out. Nancy got me to put his tuggy behind him and send him to that rather than over the jump etc this is to get him really enthusiastic but with me able to have some control as to whether he starts the course or goes for his toy.

We've done some clicker stuff at home but we did some more to confirm that he knows what it's all about and to get my timing better.

On to weaves and working towards getting him more independant so I don't have to be with him when he's in them like I do with Duds and Suzi, although I'm going to try some of the exercises with Suzi too. We used the clicker for this and clicked and rewarded him when he did a sequence correctly with no 'NO' if he didn't just no click and no food. Nancy suggested just saying 'you cheated' if he popped out but not in a down beat way. At the moment when he's in the weaves I either say 'weave, weave' or 'ssshhhhh' not very consistant eh? The plan is that I just give him the weave command then leave him to do them without me interfering and messing him up and to start doing this this we used the V weaves to give him more chance of not popping out. We started off with me sending him in and running wider than normal, clicking if he did them and Nancy putting a treat on his pot, then with Nancy holding him and me recalling him through still clicking and treating and the last thing we did was me standing halfway down the weaves with him in a wait then calling him in and past me, clicking and treating again. He was a bit hesitant coming past me but a quick 'weave' from me got him going again. I was so pleased with him as he really started to get the hang of it, well pleased wasn't quite it I was over the moon and on a real high.

1 comment:

OBay Shelties said...

It is so nice when the training goes well! Although You should feel that way after every training session!You can always try and go to your "happy" place! haha Let me know when you visit Julia as she is just down the road from me and you can stop for in for a cuppa.
:-)

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