Hand holding, general support and best of all a place to brag about the successes. Share with words. Share with photos. Share with video. This is your home place for the next 14 weeks. Let the retrieve journey begin.
None of yesterday's Zoom videos recorded. So, trust you were paying careful attention to the lessons and can remember what to do.
Alice, have your Dad do the 'rapid retrieves, 4-5 in a row' with Mabel. PLEASE RECORD and post for me. You want to practice your Setup mechanics with Kimber and a stuffed animal. PLEASE RECORD and post for me.
Chris, you are to redo the Lesson 3 EXAM with the changes we made in class yesterday. Do NOT let her collapse on you, nor lean into you, she is to do a proper Sit and maintain that Sit as you smoothly and fluidly do the SetUp - then present your new DB to her at 1" in front of her face. SHE HAS TO MOVE HER HEAD FORWARD AND PUT ON DB, CLOSE HER MOUTH, THEN YOU RELEASE THE SETUP.
So you know, as I've stated already, EVERY dog will have its Point of Contention (where it refuses to do the retrieve work) and EVERY student will hit their own, "This isn't worth the effort, I quit!" point. Happens in every Retrieve Class. I remember wanting to quit with Sugar at Lesson 2 when he WOULD NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. Margot corrected him, in a way I refuse to do with ANY dog, and he opened his mouth. We got through Lesson 2 as that was Sugar's Point of Contention. When we got to the "Hold" part of the retrieve training process, I was the one that wanted to quit as it was WAY harder than I thought it should be.
All of this is being shared with you so each of you recognize the process to train an inexperienced handler with their FC trained dog is a journey, not a destination. It is what happens between the handler and their dog that makes this training process so time consuming as well as mentally stressful. It is also this training PROCESS (meaning NOT automatic nor easy nor simple), that creates the handler and their dog into a working team.
Rarely is this retrieve training process linear, predictable
and ever upward.
Instead, it often looks and feels like this:
As long as you hang WITH me, there is always a way for a handler and their dog to succeed, just it doesn't look like the same journey for any team. So, Alice/Mabel - breathe and know we'll get the two of you through where you are stuck right now. And Chris/Sarah - breathe and know that I'll get the two of you through where you are stuck right now, get you working on Sarah's right side, and experience success. I've never had a single Retrieve Class were all the teams got through each lesson at the same time, not one time. Each team, handler and their dog, work at their own level of understanding and newly acquired skills and we build on that with each EXAM.
So, you may be feeling like this#$#!
Or you may be feeling like this.
However you are feeling, I understand as I've been there too, got the t-shirts to prove it, and went on to success. The best is yet to come, I promise. Breathe.
This week has been going good. Kratos will do all of the retrieves without any pressure at all. He gets totally wiped out after about 8 or so. But. His avoidance behavior is gradually getting worse during the "set up" before the Fetch command. Because of this, tonight I mostly worked on the motions before the fetch without ever presenting the dowel and asking for a fetch. I would start and then stop on different steps of the set up and just hold that position until Kratos relaxed. I'm hoping this will help him understand that he can be relaxed for the entire process of doing retrieves and that my thumb can be in his ear without a need for a correction. I hope this is all in line with our training. I will post a video of tomorrow's session and we will see how his behavior is.
I dislike having to remind you, but your EXAMS are due. They were due today at noon. I uploaded them early this week so everyone would have time to get them done. I won't review them tomorrow.
Yesterday was quite fascinating and COLD. I picked up Chonnie, then went to pick up Hannah, then left to meet Gayle/Olive at Marysville to train together. I also took Sugar. My surprise was lo'n'behold, I also had a dead duck in the back of my truck. 😎
Hannah is now eagerly wanting 'To-Go' and she is getting the routine of "Wait", "Ok", "Wait" (as I open the back door), then "Let's Go" "Slow" and again, "Wait" so I can close the back door. This routine (dogs are extremely good at memorizing patterns and sequences), then out the back gate to my car. She is getting "Wait" until I command, "Hannah - Hup" into her kennel. Smart dog for sure. This she has learned in this first week and done quite well.
She's great at unloading also in a new location, but oh my, my, my she is JACKED UP - WHAT ARE WE DOING NOW? WHEN CAN WE GO TO IT - WHATEVER 'IT' IS? Yesterday, we arrived, and I'm amazed at how 1000' of elevation can noticeably alter the amount of snow on the ground. Wow! It was time to expend some of Hannah's pent-up energy, in the snow with Sugar, and man! she went and went and went at warp speed 100!!
She was being inappropriate with Sugar, doing a VERY young dog behavior, called Mobbing. I was surprised Sugar didn't correct her with his Ugly Face and teeth, but Sugar was more interested in the snow than Hannah's behavior.
Hannah mobbing Sugar video:
Plus, Sugar knew I'd do Informal Recalls with Hannah AWAY from him over and over and over and over again. Really. I did many Informal Recalls.
Multiple Informal Recalls to SSIF video:
ALEACIA, see her body position, see the power in her rear moving at warp speed to go elsewhere?
Hannah needs endless corrections (collar) for her to even listen to my command.
And I require her to do SSIF. This is field training, not for the beginner student to do.
"Hannah - Here" + 4 sharp whistle blasts
"Touch"
"Sit" "ok"
And off she goes. Again, see her body position, the lowered head, the drive from her rear end? She's in full blown Prey Drive (you all will learn more about that in Week 2)
And heading for Sugar taking a snow bath, can't let her get to him, "HANNAH -HERE!" + 4 sharp whistle blasts
She spins around (she's beginning to believe me)
"Touch" and another SSIF (Straight Sit in Front)
Time to shift gears so I worked her UP and DOWN the mountain of snow.
Make no mistake, training a working dog like Hannah or like Kara, is grunt work. I use every part of my body and am moving CONSTANTLY to train her and keep the other distraction (Sugar in this case) and myself safe. Hannah's body is changing daily, she is at the 'pre-teenager' stage and SURE SHE CAN DO WHAT SHE WANTS TO DO. Not so, Hannah, not so at all and I and Jessi are here to ensure that you DO obey us and learn some manners. Sugar also will educate her as will Ace.
Aleacia, is there any way you could safely do this kind of work with Hannah with your knee the way it is right now?
Then we switched gears and I introduced Hannah to a dead duck. Really. A dead duck. Boaz found it frozen (actually he found two dead frozen ducks, but one was shot to pieces, so I didn't want to use it again) up on Thompson Basin Road. So, I kept the one good dead duck deliberately for Hannah to discover. I wanted to see her response to fowl. MAN, SHE HAS A PHENEMENAL PREY DRIVE!
And of course, Sugar needed to retrieve also to show Hannah how it to do well.
LOVE THIS PHOTO!
Then, the real training began with ILL. Started with Inverted Longe Line with Hannah, then moved to the Week 1 (officially next week) LL in a larger space. Worked Hannah against Sugar as well as against Gayle/Olive
.
Then, worked a few more angles. Sugar is making sure he stays close to try to show Hannah that remaining close = comfort.
Hannah was having a hissie fit over the constant collar corrections which she attributed to 'that dratted LL'. We WANT the dog to believe the line is causing the collar corrections, we DON'T WANT the dog to attribute the collar corrections to the handler. Hannah takes out her frustrations by attempting to bite the line and I just Walk the Line or Step on the Line or use my knee/leg to move her away from doing so. She's pretty frustrated-:)
Sugar is doing what I call 'Mirroring' in this video. He did this once, a very long time ago, with another young yellow Lab, that was fighting working WITH me on the LL. He saw the young puppy didn't know what to do so he came up beside her left side, stayed beside her and 'mirrored' what she was to do. I was amazed as Sugar did this on his own when he was quite young, not even a year. So, I coined it 'Mirror' and worked it with ALL my Pack through the years.
I no longer need to give Sugar a command (he can't hear it anyway), but Sugar has spent ALL his years as my 'right hand best hand assistant' and he knows what an unlearned dog needs to learn. So, he saw what needed to be done and on his own, mirrored Hannah to show her what to do.
Now, at one point, she kept charging him, Sugar finally conveyed "ENOUGH of your shenanigans, it is time to work girl!" and lit into her with his Ugly Face and teeth. She dodged away from his yelling at her and promptly got under my feet, so she got stepped on. Well, THOSE TWO CORRECTIONS were enough to convince her to cease charging about like a lunatic and an unruly dog and get to work. Which she did.
She's a hard head and like every field bred Lab I know and have trained, is nearly impervious to pain or discomfort. Unlike Olive who is extremely soft and agreeable, Olive would dissolve into a puddle of mental mush if she got corrected like Hannah. Hannah will take many, many, MANY corrections, not bat an eye, and be ready for more. Doesn't faze her in the least.
Knowing the difference between a 'Soft dog' and a 'Hard dog' is understanding how much 'pressure' - that is collar corrections, each dog can handle and learn from. It is a balance and the excellent trainer knows how to train from a soft dog like Olive, to an even tempered coorperative dog like Sugar, to a hard headed dog like Hannah.
And then, I just did some LL work with Hannah working AROUND, behind, in between and through Gayle/Olive and Sugar as planted stationary distractions. I worked Hannah until she opted to ignore them.
Aww....that is the point of LL work done well, the dog learns to choose 'comfort' means remaining IN the Safety Zone besides their handler. The dog learns anywhere else is choosing 'discomfort' outside the Safety Zone besides their handler.
And finally, success. Here I am doing Cool Down (notice the handle of the LL is on my left thumb?), Hannah COULD charge either dog, but the prior hour plus of work has convinced her that paying attention to me IS the wise choice.
