This is a great post you started here @Rosie, it's so interesting following yours and Pongo's progress and reading the, as usual, fantastically helpful responses. I am learning lots. I wanted to add that firstly, don't beat yourself up if you miss a day or two. Sometimes I really can't face training and others I love it! We're only human aren't we? And also, a while back I was quite unwell and didn't do any training for nearly two weeks. Although I walked Plum, it was all I could do to just get out and back so training fell by the wayside. I was dreading starting back when I was well again but she seemed to have forgotten very little and we were back to where we'd been very quickly so, have a good holiday!
Yesterday we did a hundred yards along the track nicely at looselead, with a treat every 15 steps. Good boy. And another few dozen yards through the woods. Good boy. Today we went down the track again....doing fine until a walker came round the bend towards us. Oooo-er, it reminded me that we have a long way to go! Points to Pongo's credit: he didn't immediately lunge off to her, he stood in "point" pose, rigid and tail wagging. For a bit. But once she got within five yards, his brain exploded, he pounced off towards her, dragging me in his wake..... For my part, I lost the place; I found myself thinking "how do I hold the lead and the bag of treats without dropping it, I need to get the treatbag better in my hand, now where is it, oh perhaps I should be distracting my dog right now, oh yes, oh Pon..... aaarghhhgkkkk". (That last is the sound of me being dragged over to the nice and rather bemused young lady.) I think both of us could have done rather better! But it was a good test of him, and one that I can compare with in a few weeks when he is so very very very much better (of course).... Off to Croatia for a week after tomorrow so this log will lapse. See you all on the other side of holidays!
@Rosie you are funny telling us about your training but Rome wasn't built in a day, good boy Pongo for loose lead walking, just one tip, buy yourself a treat bag that you can hook onto your jeans or one with a belt so as you free up one hand. Enjoy Croatia, it's supposed to be very beautiful xx
@Rosie I have this treat bag, a little expensive, I got mine cheaper than this but they are really good, can hold high value treats, a few sections for lower grade treats, phone, keys, poo bags, clicker etc. It holds open for quick access to treats too. I hook mine on my jeans but it comes with a waist belt x https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Dogs/Rew...?srs=8922295031&ie=UTF8&qid=1494786792&sr=8-6
Good work Rosie & Pongo. We've been there (and still are there sometimes) I know exactly what you mean. I have the same treat bag as Helen - it's great for multi-variety treats & all the dog walking paraphernalia. Washes well too. Mine's hooked to my jeans pocket or coat pocket.
I have that one too, although I've taken to wearing a crossbody bag instead lately, which is full of treats, ball, phone, poo bags, keys, and so on It really is full to the brim but very handy and easy access.
A treat bag is indispensable. And I yap at Xena like a mad thing on our walks. I'm quite self-conscious about it at night - there's nothing like standing outside somebody's house cooing "good girl, you're soooo goooood, ah leave it, AH Xena I don't think so" etc when it's dark
He sounds exactly like Charlie used to be. With Charlie, this is the point where I'd slap a handful of sardines on his nose and do an about turn. If I lost that split second opportunity, game over. The lunge and the reinforcement for the lunge - so it was more likely next time - was then inevitable.
Golly gosh, it's a while since I posted here. A week or so on holiday then it just felt toooooo hot for training (yep, I know that's a lame excuse!). But we've done a couple of sessions since the weather broke. There is no doubt Pongo understands what is expected of him now. At the beginning of our little ten minute session up and down the track, he is just focused on the treat bag. But by the time we've gone a hundred yards or so he is walking along nicely, looking up every now and then to get a treat. He still veers aside occasionally towards a sniff, but doesn't "pull", he comes back in when he feels the lead go taut. So I think that is progress. I am now officially mad dog lady. I got bored with saying "good boy" all the time but I feel like I ought to say something to keep him in touch with me. And I'm bored with counting steps as a measure of progress. So I'm now reciting "The Highwayman" - poem learned at school - and seeing how many verses we can get through before he loses focus (and how many treats per verse). Yesterday we got through to when Bess the Landlord's Daughter has just managed to get her finger on the trigger of the musket. At three treats per verse. Thanks heavens we never meet anyone on our walks. Especially when I recite it doing the voices .
That's very good progress. Veering towards a sniff is a huge improvement. Its only a couple of month since he was pulling on a very tight lead at Beacon Hill. I guess he's not ready for William Blake yet?
Hmmmm.....before I claim too much success, I should point out that this is without any other dogs, humans, squirrels, birds, gusts of air, or other distractions. And it was just before dinner-time so focus on food was quite easy. But still, progress in the right direction I think....!
Which is exactly how it should be - no distractions, low distractions, medium distractions, then high distractions. It would be unfair to expect him to learn in a high distraction environment. I say all of this from a theoretical standpoint - we, too, have our own loose lead challenge with Harv! Keep at it
Am hoping that today we might get as far as the Highwayman returning with the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high.....
I don't know these poems. I wish now I'd tried harder to learn stuff by heart at school, if only I'd known that it could be so useful.
The Highwayman is a tragic tale. Both the Highwayman and Bess the Landlord's Daughter come to a sticky end. I hope it doesn't upset Pongo too much. Especially when the Highwayman is shot down "like a dog". Not nice.
Maybe you could edit a few lines so you don't offend Pongo's sensibilities. "Shot down like the bonio snatcher that he was". Pongo will never notice.
