Category: Blog

I just recently turned my Facebook notification for Dog City Training Center to SMS so I get their updates on my phone as text messages (unlimited text).

Sunday, I was on my way to do some light shopping and got a text message that the first person to reply would get a facility rental at 5:00 pm, so after a brief moments of thought, decided to reply.

I snagged it and it was GREAT!  It's $8.00 for students,more for non students (if you sign up tell them I sent you).

Paula changed most of the jump heights for me and volunteered to move equipment.  It gave me a chance to try some of the weave entries that EE showed us in class Wednesday night — basically positioning at the second pole and that REALLY helps Macy.

We also did some table work, some teeter work and played with pieces of our Wednesday night in sections.

It was really good for both of us and I think I'll do some more.

Sometimes she is almost like a border collie. She has always been able to learn by watching other dogs which is not always good. she learned almost all of marcie’s tricks by watching marcie doing them. i dont want her learning much of maggie’s stuff

i took her to a rally fun match last friday but have been too busy to post much about it. we got there real early so i hung out and watched and visited with the trainers.

i ended up doing open and did a reasonable approximation which wasnt bad since we had trained for it. we also did a better approximation of the novice course.

hers the wild part. she loves rally. i think she likes any opportunity for positive reinfocement.

marcie hated it and especially learning to heel. anything that had to be repeated bothered her but not macy. she’ll do it over and over.

so i might have a rally dog.

Macy had her first commercial photo shoot today, and she is definately not a border collie.  And she can't focus on two things at once.

She was to interact with a puppy, and unfortunately when we put them together they looked like littermates, not mother and pup.  That's what happens when you put a small 13" beagle with a tall, probably 15" male pup.   Even if he is around 8-9 weeks old.

Also we couldn't get either to do what they needed to do when they were together.  Macy wouldn't stay and focus on the camera, neither would pup.

So we ended up doing it apart.

Not sure if they got anything they could use, but it was interesting and I know what to work on. 

By the way, the atmosphere didn't get her at all, and she enjoyed the two young girls — probably elementary age, as they were definately younger than my niece and the girls I did summer camp with.  A group whose energy level is difficult for me, much less Macy.

Training the stay the traditional way hasn't worked.  Basically, I stay sit, move, and the dog moves.  I can get her to stay if I'm still, but the moment I move, she moves.

I've seen some vidoes, etc. lately on back-chaining and it gave me the idea to back-chain the stay.  I am working on two different pictures right now.

a) Sit stay

I am getting Macy to go to the other side of a jump, having her sit opposite of me, and clicking for her to stay.

b) Down

I am working on getting her to go to the table from a distance and doing a down.  Right now, I'm working on getting her to be about 10 feet away, and we're about 6 feet away right now.

The plan is to work on duration first — get at least a 5 count — and then start moving around.

First, I used to hurt dogs when I trained them.  Years ago, I used a pinch collar, a choke collar, etc. to train my dogs, and used physical force to get them to do what I wanted to do.

Years ago, I used to train police dogs, and the guys would use electric collars. 

I'm tired of that.

I also think that when you tell a dog to sit, they should sit until you tell them to get up.  Same thing with down and stand.

I've tried all that with Macy, and the minute I move, she moves.  We need to fix this.

Now, back in the day when I used corrections I had a beagle named Peppermint Patty who couldn't stay either.  Used lots of force, use lots of corrections. 

Then I had a beagle named Marcie, who I could put on the stay line at an agility trial and go to the whole end of the arena, and she would take every obstace in between.  Took a while, but I got it.  She could do the same type of thing at the table.

Same thing with Maggie.

Both dogs I trained to stay at the start line, told them to sit, moved away and they would do it.  Like I said, took a while.

I swear I'm using the same techniques with Macy, but the moment I move, she's gone.  She's stay for a while if I stay still, but not as long as I can stay.  She'll eventually get up every time.  And she twitches while she is trying to stay.

I've tried this before, and it hasn't worked.  Hey, I tried this with Macy at the beginning.

I'm trying some new techiques and people want me to write them down, so I'm going to try.

Here's the deal.  Macy's nickname is Wild Woman, and as a result she has no stay.  I'm not sure if it's because I believe in the Wild Woman thing, or because she truly can't stay, but she will be 4 on January 10th, and she has no stay.  None.  What so ever.

Here's what she's got:

• Touch (nose)
• High Five (paw touch)
• Sit
• Down
• All of the agility behaviors
• Spin right
• Spin left

These behaviors show up on a regular basis:

• Dead – on her side, sometime her tongue even hands out
• Bow
• Various backup behaviors
• Heeling

Most of the behaviors are captures, not truly shaped behaviors.  I'm working on shaping the backwards behavior.

##CONTENT##