What a great weekend

photo taken by Heather Gallagher

I have belonged to a number of dog clubs through and so far I am loving the OVBCC.  They seem to have a lot of activities for the membersip to participate in which is great.  This weekend they had a herding day and Iggy got to try some herding.

We did OK.  He was a little nervous at first but got the hang of it.  He did everything I asked like the wonderful boy he is and tried really hard.

Definitely something I want to try again.

On Sunday we went to the BARK walkathon to do an agility demo.  Iggy had no problem dealing with the excitement and distractions around him.  We worked on a wicked lead out and he nailed it.

Very proud of my boy.

It's all in the name

My goal this month is to improve the response to Iggy's name.

What I have is an absolute awesome response sometimes.  A so so response sometimes and finally no response.  A couple of times he has even looked up and waited before going off and doing his thing (which BTW makes my head explode).

I think I have built up some pretty good value for Iggy's name I think I just have let him believe it is optional.  It not working has led to me getting annoyed which has led to our off leash walks becoming worse and worse for ranging, chasing things and ignoring being called.

The plan

1.  Build value for his name

1. on recalls from a stay I always use "break" start using Iggy sometimes
2. on leash let him sniff the environment and call him - assess success after 2 reps - if not working build value for me with collar grabs first
3. call him in situations where he is already going to come

2.  Test the value - always my issue is dealing with failure in a way that communicates to Iggy that's not it try again

1. before you test value build some value for collar grabs
2. make him fail
3. video tape

Hmmmm I think this is much too vague but this is where I am unsure how to make it better.  I think I just wing it, which could explain the problem :).

Situations to set up

1.  Him going for the toy and calling him off.  Need a person to step on the toy if Iggy decides to keep going.

2.  Calling Iggy off someone coming in through the back door.  If he doesn't turn back the person just closes the door and steps out.

3.  Try outside in the long grass with a leash on, wait until he starts to sniff, call him.  If he doesn't respond (remember any response is reward-able at this stage) take his collar move him back 5 feet and let go, if he doesn't drive back to the sniff reward.

Yes I think this is a better example of what a plan should look like. 

Stay tuned for the results.