Posts tagged dog training

Day: 4

Session: 1

Duration: approx. 45 minutes

Location: around the large Roselawn block

Heel distance: 20′

# of Sits: approx. 100

Soak time: 5 mins

Sit on the dog: Bradley’s so exhausted that he is sitting on himself.

It’s actually the fifth day, but we’re on Day 4 because we missed yesterday.  Bradley is always easier to train after he’s spent the day at Tailwags, because he lets out his excess energy there.  Today was much easier than Tuesday because he was not as wild and trying to sniff everything.  We did encounter various distractions which I found interesting.  Rather than running to the distraction, Bradley just turned his body in that direction and sat.

Bradley was very good today at keeping within a 2′ “force” for 20′.  He is not sitting on his own yet, but we’ll introduce that tomorrow.  He is having trouble with the slow pace so we’re working on that one in particular.  And although he starts when I start with no problem, he is not stopping right away when I stop.  He consistently stops when he hears the collar tightening. Given the way this week is going, we will probably continue this week for a few extra days for good measure.

Day: 2

Session: 2

Duration: approx. 40 minutes

Location: around the Roselawn-Castlefield block

Heel distance: 10′

# of Sits: approx. 100

Soak time: 10 mins

Sit on the dog: none

I figured out that it takes less than 10 seconds to take 6 steps and “sit-your-dog”.  That means there is potential for 6 sits per minute, and 150 in 20 minutes!  Even if I am underestimating how much time it takes, I could easily do 100 sits in 20 minutes.  I needed to do the math so I didn’t have to figure out how I was going to count and make sure that we did 100.  Another way to figure it out is, say I walk a kilometer (which is what Bradley and I did tonight), that’s about 3,000 feet.  Less than half of that was for soak time, so call it 2,000 feet.  If I’m stopping every 10 feet for a sit, that’s 200 sits!  No matter how you look at it, a 20 minute, half kilometer walk will get your 100 sits done.  Not so overwhelming when you do the math.

As I suspected, Bradley was more distracted for this evening’s walk.  He still did the work well, but he didn’t melt into his sits the way he was this morning.  I saw him looking up at me a couple of times during his sits, and I’m pretty sure he was wondering what the heck was going on.  He wasn’t terribly happy to be “sat” on wet sidewalks, etc.  But all in all, he was good.  The actual heeling was very good.  He again looked behind us a lot when he heard things, to see if something was coming I suppose.

Soak time was good, Bradley enjoyed meandering along the edge of people’s yards.  After soak time, we walked briskly home.  I think I’m learning things about Bradley that I didn’t know before.  It seems Bradley’s favorite pace of walking is power-walk speed.  He can maintain that pace, looks around happily, and his nose is about an inch from my leg.

Similar to this morning’s after-training puppy burst, when we got home Bradley had a crazy puppy burst, tearing through the house and letting loose like he’d had a hard day at work.  It’s so much fun to see that happen.

Day: 1

Session: 1

Duration: approx. 25 minutes

Location: length of schoolyard, along adjacent street

Heel distance: 10′

# of Sits: approx. 25

Soak time: none

Sit on the dog: none

I was looking forward to starting this morning, because I like this week so much better than last!  There was a minor glitch in the session, but otherwise Bradley did fantastic.

My initial goal was to walk around the block, because I estimate that to be at least 500 feet, and if we stop every 10 feet or so to sit, that would be about 50 sits.  However, we were less than halfway when Bradley was seriously scared by something.  I’m not sure what, because I didn’t see or hear anything but it could have been as simple as the loud birds chirping.  Anyway, he turned and ran so that even when I was running, he was still at the end of the leash and pulling despite the training collar.

That snag out of the way, once we were to a point that Bradley was comfortable, he was a superstar.  He got used to the stopping every 6 steps pattern very quickly, and most of the time was seated before I could physically seat him.  It makes it difficult to manipulate him when he’s already sitting, although I know we’re supposed to do it anyway.

Day: 5

Session: 1

Confine dog (double amount of training time): training after a night of sleep

Two 30 min or one 60 session: 30 minute session

Location #2, pattern: nearby park, baseball diamond, square pattern

Leash Length: 2′

Distractions: people

Soak time: 5 minutes

Sit on the dog: none

We were back at our second training location this morning, down to a 2′ leash.  I think my theory was proven this morning; Bradley works better with structure.  What I mean is that at 15′ he was SO free that it seemed there were no rules except to keep within a 15′ radius.  At 5′, he seemed to understand that the pattern walking was a task.  And at 2′ he definitely understood what he was supposed to do.  In my own form of logic, it makes sense because he is mostly on a 2 to 3′ leash on our regular walks (basically we fold the last two or three feet of a six foot leash when we walk him.

Bradley’s most improved area has to be the starting and stopping.  He absolutely catches himself when I stop and start.  In fact, this morning, he started to sit on his own when I stopped.  And, as a side note, he sat and shook a paw this morning when I bent down to put his training collar on (I’m not sure if he was just being polite or begging me to change my mind about putting it on).  Either way it was very cute.

I can tell that he sometimes gets lost in the walk about halfway between the start and stop points.  He is still walking nicely beside me, but he literally looks like he’s daydreaming.  His head is sort of off looking left, and he catches himself getting onto a diagonal path.  Those are the times I find myself doing a drop and run.  I’m wondering if his daydreaming is good because he’s not focused on a distraction, or bad because he’s not focused on me?

We were outside a few minutes later than usual this morning, mostly so that I could try and catch some distractions,and that worked.  The odd person walked through the park and Bradley would stop walking, like he usually does when he sees someone, and sat hoping that the person would come and pay him some attention.  Luckily at that time of the morning people are in a hurry to get where they’re going, so the distraction was fair.  I would run a few steps forward, and he would catch up with me, excited and smiling as if we’ve just played some fabulous game.

I think I am seeing the progress come together for him.  Because Bradley is such a happy dog (I know most dogs are happy, but he always looks like he’s having the best moment of his life), it’s hard to tell if he’s taking the training seriously or he just thinks it’s a game for half an hour.  Having said that, his body language and reactions to us are changing so underneath those goofy smiles he must be learning and thinking.

Unfortunately Bradley had to get to doggy daycare this morning and I had to get to work, so once again sit on the dog has to wait.

I can’t help thinking, after re-reading my words here, how lucky we are to have this dog that reminds me everyday how happy he is.  Not many things in life provide us that sort of gratification and confidence.