WINTER
This is an older post that I started and must have been called away.. Tonight I found it AFTER I posted my March offering and finished it off. Here it is out of sequence - and I hope the videos work!
(Mid February)
UGH... We have finally been hit by Old Man Winter. The month of February has been terribly cold and we have had more snow.... though nothing like last year's fantastic amounts. One good blizzard left our street looking like this:
Actually, I think this photo was taken a few days after a storm, and the reason for this picture was the hoar frost on the trees. Don't worry, we got more snow.... but after years of taking pictures of the snow, I have kind of bogged down this year. Yea, another snow storm, snow piled high alongside the driveway, dog has to climb the snow pile to 'water' his tree... yada yada....
So what else have I been doing this month? Well, we had a break-through on Elvis' training! Afghans are notoriously difficult to teach to retrieve, and part of his Obedience training and trialing involves picking up a dumbbell and bringing it back to me. I gave him a dumbbell to play with as a puppy and he chewed on it until it was so crummy that I had to throw it away. Occasionally I would throw it and see if he would go for it, and he would... but no way would he bring it back.. It was his toy and he was keeping it!
So after the puppy dumbbell bit the dust, I bought a new one and set it aside JUST for official business. We started with taking it from my hand, holding it, and giving it up for a treat. All that went pretty well except for the holding it. He would take it and spit it out, or if I helped him to hold it, he acted like I was gagging him! Little by little we made progress, at times just putting it away for weeks or months, then finding it at the bottom of the training bag and trying again. February is a good time to get out things that are difficult and working on them, so out comes the dumbbell and we start again...
This winter, something in him clicked and he finally got it! Where before he would pick up the dumbbell and toss it ahead of him, pick it up and toss it again... all the way back to me, then I would put it in his mouth, help him to hold it, ask him to sit, and then tell him to 'give'... all of a sudden he got it together and brought it back, held it and waited for me to take it. YAHoo!
But wait.. it gets better! After doing this in the hallway for a few days, I took him down to the basement where I have some space for the Agility weave poles to be set up. He loves his weave poles, so we were doing that, giving lots of treats to reinforce that happy activity and after about 10 repetitions, we were both getting a little dizzy so I switched to Obedience heeling with some Rally moves... all trying to break up our February boredom and get a little exercise. Then I got out the dumbbell. I tossed it in the space beside the weave poles and this is what he does.
So, thinking that if he can retrieve through weave poles, he can certainly retrieve over a jump! So I set up a makeshift jump and here we go:
Not only does he retrieve over a jump, but he digs his dumbbell out of a box of stuff and THEN does a perfect retrieve! Now, if I HAD to throw the dumbbell into a box, I could never make it....
We went on to practice at the training club (often, a dog will do an exercise perfectly at home, but not anywhere else) and he continues to do very well. We have even joined the Pre-Open class where he is supposed to learn (and practice) these more challenging exercises. So far, he has not embarrassed me and is doing well!
Not to have this entire post about Elvis, I will also show a clip of Maija playing with her treat ball... whenever it gets into the kitchen where Elvis might see her and take the ball away, she picks it up and takes it back to her 'safe zone' in the front hall!
(Mid February)
UGH... We have finally been hit by Old Man Winter. The month of February has been terribly cold and we have had more snow.... though nothing like last year's fantastic amounts. One good blizzard left our street looking like this:
Actually, I think this photo was taken a few days after a storm, and the reason for this picture was the hoar frost on the trees. Don't worry, we got more snow.... but after years of taking pictures of the snow, I have kind of bogged down this year. Yea, another snow storm, snow piled high alongside the driveway, dog has to climb the snow pile to 'water' his tree... yada yada....
So what else have I been doing this month? Well, we had a break-through on Elvis' training! Afghans are notoriously difficult to teach to retrieve, and part of his Obedience training and trialing involves picking up a dumbbell and bringing it back to me. I gave him a dumbbell to play with as a puppy and he chewed on it until it was so crummy that I had to throw it away. Occasionally I would throw it and see if he would go for it, and he would... but no way would he bring it back.. It was his toy and he was keeping it!
So after the puppy dumbbell bit the dust, I bought a new one and set it aside JUST for official business. We started with taking it from my hand, holding it, and giving it up for a treat. All that went pretty well except for the holding it. He would take it and spit it out, or if I helped him to hold it, he acted like I was gagging him! Little by little we made progress, at times just putting it away for weeks or months, then finding it at the bottom of the training bag and trying again. February is a good time to get out things that are difficult and working on them, so out comes the dumbbell and we start again...
This winter, something in him clicked and he finally got it! Where before he would pick up the dumbbell and toss it ahead of him, pick it up and toss it again... all the way back to me, then I would put it in his mouth, help him to hold it, ask him to sit, and then tell him to 'give'... all of a sudden he got it together and brought it back, held it and waited for me to take it. YAHoo!
But wait.. it gets better! After doing this in the hallway for a few days, I took him down to the basement where I have some space for the Agility weave poles to be set up. He loves his weave poles, so we were doing that, giving lots of treats to reinforce that happy activity and after about 10 repetitions, we were both getting a little dizzy so I switched to Obedience heeling with some Rally moves... all trying to break up our February boredom and get a little exercise. Then I got out the dumbbell. I tossed it in the space beside the weave poles and this is what he does.
So, thinking that if he can retrieve through weave poles, he can certainly retrieve over a jump! So I set up a makeshift jump and here we go:
We went on to practice at the training club (often, a dog will do an exercise perfectly at home, but not anywhere else) and he continues to do very well. We have even joined the Pre-Open class where he is supposed to learn (and practice) these more challenging exercises. So far, he has not embarrassed me and is doing well!
Not to have this entire post about Elvis, I will also show a clip of Maija playing with her treat ball... whenever it gets into the kitchen where Elvis might see her and take the ball away, she picks it up and takes it back to her 'safe zone' in the front hall!
Buckaroo isn't playing much. He likes to hold down the sofa.
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