This was the week that no one wanted to cooperate.
Seriously. All of the dogs were twitchy, irritable, and uncooperative. While they perked up when they got to play with their favoritest thing EVAR, (the buja board) they immediately de-perked when it was taken away. Quick’s continued love affair with the board is amusing. He goes up onto his back legs and pounces the board, his tail tippy wagging and his ears all perked.
Quick barked in his crate when his bestest friend Phoebe was out. (She is his herding buddy.) I had to give him Mr. Squeaky to keep him quiet (best two dollars I ever spent!) and gave him treats for lying down and being quiet. I do not want a cage barker! I’m saving up for another collapsible cage, since they managed to find where it was stored and chewed a hole in it. Evil dogs!
He committed unforgivable sins during restrained recalls. Quick has a sensitive neck on the best of days, and long fur is easily pulled in the hunt for his collar. He snapped at the trainer, ran away, and pooped in the corner of the ring! Oh yes, humiliation, thy name is me. I really have to work with him on that. I have no idea how to start desensitizing him to people grabbing his fur, though! I believe I’ll just clip a leash tab to his collar at all times when he’s out and about. Poor guy’s going to have so much going on! Leash tab, halti, collar, leash…
I found out his release word is not as strong as I thought. We’re going to be practicing with breakfast for a while! The trainer thinks ‘okay’ is a word we use too much for it to be a very good release word, but I personally have never had problems with it. Any thoughts?
On the plus side, he did fantastic on shadow handling around objects! We set up some jump standards and went through and around and by, using hands to direct the dogs away from us. He was a little dream for that, as usual! He loves to work off-leash, in any setting.
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