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Saturday, July 28, 2012

New Trainer and more!

We started working with a new trainer, had 2 sessions so far.  She has delicious turkey meatloaf treats which Grouchy Pants really likes.
Our first session was BAT at our house.  Grouchy (and we) did great!  I put him in his crate when she got here and he barked while I talked to her outside, but when I got his muzzle and harness on and we started working, I'm not sure he even growled.  She was at the end of the driveway and we just came out to the front steps at first and then getting closer.  It was modified BAT.  We retreated inside the house when he gave a calming signal.  We did touch, sit, down, shakes, parallel walking, some petting, and walking around in the house.  I am proud that we took it slow and kept him under threshold.
Our next session was before weight pull.  He barked in the beginning but no growls and seemed to remember her.  We did more approach and retreats, less BAT like because it was a parking lot and we never ducked out of sight.  But we did fine, walked a bit - he was pretty loose and wiggly!
In fact, it turned out to be his best weight pull session ever!  We used the sled, which he seems to like a lot more than the cart.  And he had very little hesitation.  We think maybe he's the type that needs to just get going, no waiting to pull otherwise he loses the motivation. 
Sassy Pants whined and cried the whole time Grouchy was working with the trainer.  She does not like to be left out of the spotlight.  Sassy Pants did great at weight pull as usual, she's pulling the sled too, but with 1 cinder block!  Grouchy got up to 2.5 blocks and it's pretty heavy at that point. 
Planning to do some car BAT with trainer next and go on a walk in a new place.  That should be his reward and then, we'll tackle the vet clinic. 
Started teaching Sassy Touch with a stick.  I began using the Target cue and I think it sounds too much like Take It, which she doesn't really know but sorta knows.  So I switched to Touch but in hindsight, I should have used Cue or Sniff or something.  If she can target stuff, maybe I can teach her to push stuff around.  She's so food motivated, that food is a distractor.  If she can target the stick, maybe I can teach her to jump in the car, at least her front legs...
Grouchy will sort of push a ball around - I thought I'd teach him Treiball.  He has also started to learn Crawl.  And he wanted to get in on the Target stick too so he's been doing that.
I took Sassy to try dock diving today, she did not want any part of it.  She did great watching the dogs.  She barked as we pulled in to park, there were lots of dogs around and it was a dog park... but after I left her in the car for a few minutes to register and brought her out, she didn't bark and barely pulled.  Some progress!

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