He is so lovely! "Not sniff the grass? What? Why wouldn't we go sniff the grass?". Charlie feels the same way.
That is impressive heel walking for a spaniel; someone once said it was a success if the dog was in the same county
That clicker has an extendable target stick in it. It's the one I bought at clickerexpo. It was the only one to hand when we were heading out. I also have a couple of Clix ones but they were both in the car. Thank you all for your kind words, I think heelwork will be a never ending challenge I won't tell him how handsome everyone thinks he is it'll just go to his head
Haven't popped in here for ages and I get rewarded with both a pic of Obi and a vid! Positive reinforcement means I will be back to lurking again....all this gun dog stuff is a bit out of my league but to me it sounds like things are progressing nicely, Barbara! And he IS gorgeous....
There's a football pitch near us that's completely enclosed and Obi has been a bit short of exercise but had lots of close quarters training so I thought I'd take him there and just let him go wherever he wanted. Run until his legs fell off if he felt like it! He did go for an initial burn.....I'd tried to get the three crows on the field to leave but they weren't having any of it and just kept moving away so I decided I'd risk letting Obi off. He legged it (away from the crows - phew) but then he started bouncing back to me. I kept walking away from him and before I knew it we had quite a bit of off lead heelwork going on which was heavily rewarded of course! I'd clearly taken my brave pills this morning as I'd brought a dummy with me too so I decided we'd do some clicker retrieve. I'm using plastic dummies at the moment as they seem to be lower in value compared to canvas and they're certainly easier to keep clean in all the mud! Popped my dummy out and started clicking away. I lowered my criteria massively as we were in a new location and on GRASS! All I wanted was a drop on the click and to avoid any legging it. I definitely had a few head ducks and he was only putting the dummy down to get the treat but then I did get a few drops on the click. Extremely pleased, dummy away, a bit more of a wander and then home for a sleep I'm getting a really solid push towards my hand inside now and if I keep my hands out of the way as Obi approaches and only put my hand out once he's arrived you can see the hand target really working well as he seeks the hand to push the dummy into. He's still sloppy at the last moment and the release isn't on cue but I think that's just excitement. In general the level of arousal around dummies inside is dropping. I'm also getting Riley to hold a dummy in his mouth and rewarding Obi for not mugging him as at some point Obi will work around other dogs and his thieving tendencies will get very short shrift!!
Good boy Obi! Football pitch sounds like a real find - he can have a bit of a spin without getting into too much trouble. Good going on the clicker retrieve!
Yes it can be a bit popular but it's a great space and only a few minutes down the road. I'm pleased with the clicker retrieve so far but if I miss a day it definitely sets us back. I wonder if Obi will need endless retrieves so that it always stays 'normal' and is never rare and exciting. I know we've talked about the downsides of rationing retrieves for Charlie.....
Charlie's retrieving has just been so very messed up - messed up by the long periods without retrieving, which drove his obsession to new heights, and also by me chopping and changing methods until I found what worked. I suspect that it was quite extreme circumstances that created Charlie's serious obsession, and Obi will be free of those. But breaks in retrieving with Charlie makes it all so much worse, yes. He needs an intensive maintenance programme, which I don't really have time to do if I'm honest.
I haven't posted for a really long time but thought I would capture our good work in the garden so I can look back on it when it's STILL going pear shaped out and about. Obi's retrieving at home is great. The garden isn't big but he will do split retrieves and directions at home. He'll also now happily deliver to hand a canvas dummy as long as I don't get him worked up. I'm keeping retrieving as calm as possible! Today we worked on our stop on the way to a food bowl. Once he stopped I threw his dummy to the side, he stayed steady and then I sent him. I did a few straight to the food bowl too so he didn't get sticky. After that I did a recall, stopped him on his way back, threw his dummy and then pushed him back to the food bowl. It was hard for him to move away from the dummy but after three goes he went straight back. It was a slightly odd exercise but I wanted him to move away from a dummy distraction. I'm so very pleased with him and I'm sure if we can get it right in the garden we will eventually get it right out and about in company! Well I'm almost sure
Yup always food in the bowl. The only mistake he made really was anticipating being sent when I put my arm down but I just walked quickly over and lifted the bowl before he finished. I need to do more work on anticipation with both my boys.
