.....on our evening on lead walk in the dark and wind yesterday. Got to the Village shop which had 2 cars on the little forecourt. Asked Red to sit and stay and moved away from her (holding lead). Could hear horses hooves very very close and realised someone was leading a horse to the stables at the Manor House just nearby. Red pricked up her ears and as the horse came into sight very close by, she broke her stay. I quickly got her back into a sit saying ‘look at that, that’s a horse...’. As I did this, I noticed a woman sitting in one of the cars smiling so I smiled back. Two people came out the shop and one car drove off, someone went by on the other side of the road so lots of distractions and all the time, the wind blowing furiously and leaves rushing past us. Red just sat and calmly looked. After 2 minutes in the stay, I praised Red and gave her a few treats.......at that point the lady in the car clapped and cheered .
Ah, that's a good example of the video snowbunny posted yesterday, the lady talking about 'doing nothing' just sitting and watching. Good for you and Red.
Brilliant story, thanks for posting, well done Red - 2 minutes is a long time, how great that the lady appreciated it. Red is a better dog than Cassie, going out in the wind and rain. Cassie won't, just doesn't see the point !! Yesterday I had to pop the cat to the vet in the evening, took Cassie along for the ride. She got to the open back door and planted her feet rigidly and just looked at me, clearly saying "No, no, I don't really think so, thank you" !
Sounds like a time to use what aD call "proximity vortex", although I've changed it up a bit. I use it to get Willow practicing getting into the car, which she has started balking at. I use kibble as a low value treat and raw mince as a high value treat. Throw the kibble to the "safe place" (in your case, inside the house), mark a turn back to you and reward with the mince. Start off easy, so you're still inside, with your back to the open door. Repeat a few times so she gets the gist - running into the house gets kibble, but running towards the door gets WOW! Start dropping the high value treat closer to the door, then so she has to reach a little into the rain and so on. Using movement like this really helps Willow to "unstick". I've not been in the car with her in a while, because she started to freeze up with it, and this morning I played this game. At first, she wouldn't even go near the car, which is where tossing the kibble away really makes a difference. Within about six goes she was taking the mince off the sill of the car and about four after that, she was jumping into the car and staying there (with lots of mince as a reward) until released. As always, you have to try to fade the lure ASAP, so after a couple of goes of her jumping in, I just pretended to throw the mince in, then fed her once she was in. I'll have to repeat this over and over to build a solid positive association, but it's a super powerful concept. Back to the original thread, how lovely, and well done Red! It's nice when someone appreciates the hard work that has given rise to good behaviour, when so many people just think you have an intrinsically good dog!
@snowbunny , it's ok, not a big issue at all, it was simply due to her dislike of dark, wet and windy conditions, and it's fine, just her character. She loves a car ride, it was just to break the monotony of the housebound day.
DH takes the dogs out regardless of the weather. I have to make myself go now it’s dark, cold and sometimes wet. Once out, I love that walk with her. She is funny though as if there are rain puddles on the pavement, she will not walk through them - she has to go round them every time .
Well done Red! Lucky's the same - he hates the rain and won't walk through puddles. We go out the back door, and when we go past the front of the building he gets on the doorstep and looks incredibly pathetic wanting to go back inside. He then walks along the pavement as close to the buildings as possible and looks up at me every few meters as if to say "why are you doing this to me??". Then we get to the park/woods when he is happy to be off lead exploring despite the rain. It hardly rains where I am in Germany, I don't think he'll cope if we move back to the UK!
