Class two

Your second class is scheduled for this Tuesday January 23 at 6:00 pm.

Things (other than dog and treats) that will be useful to bring:

Last week's objects

Your rubber feed bin (non-slip platform up to 4 inches tall), cone/five gallon bucket and clip/clothespeg from last week.

Bowls

Five or six food dishes (metal or plastic, they do not have to match but your dog should be able to take a treat from them and should be acclimatised to them enough to do so.

A mat or raised bed

This can be a mat, raised bed, crate pad, towel, folded blanket and one that your dog is comfortable with lying on and large enough for your dog to lie down in relaxed way and chew on a toy or lick on a licky mat or just gaze adoringly at you. So part of this may be also the chewy toy, or lickie mat for your dog to use.

Exercises this week

Super bowls

This is a pattern game that, once learned by the dog can be used as a tool for working in distracting Perch to help a dog to wish to orient to handler as opposed to external stimuli.

Video and step by sty directions below.

Spin and Twist

This week we will introduce spin and twist to our dogs in front of us.

Stationary heel position - reward placement

We will look at where to deliver treats after marking and where to carry them plus resetting dog for having them find stationary heel position.

Here is a write up by Denise Fenzi on the topic, she goes into details for sorting position problems via reward placement- overall (simplified) note:  feed where you want your dog’s head to be. https://denisefenzi.com/2012/12/placement-of-rewards/

Backing up in heel position along a wall.
Send around bucket/cone

This week’s step will be to teach your dog a verbal cue that sends them around an upright object and back to you for food toss or toy.  In class, for the sake of multiple dogs working in one small area, the dog will be rewarded on their mat.

**Make sure you practice both directions:  dog approaching object on their left and on their right.  

Nose touch to clip

The dogs will start their nose-touch-to-clip:  first while it is in your hand and then while it is clipped to your front.

Rotate on perch

The dogs will start to perform turns on the forehand with front feet on the perch and hind feet walking.

Sit/down while you move around dog
Back up onto an object

Another hind end awareness exercise 

Steps for super bowls game

  1. Have the bowls (4-6 of them) in a row, a few steps apart
  2. Walk up to first bowl with your dog, drop or place treat in bowl, let dog eat it (if need bed, tell dog get it or release to treat)
  3. Wait (refrain from cuing) for dog to reorient or look up at you looking for another treat.  This is not a “look”, not sustained focus, just marking when dog is 
    1. no longer sniffing/eating
    2. not staring off at surroundings
    3. roughly looking at you even briefly
  4. Mark and repeat at the same bowl until dog quickly looks up at you right after eating treat, then mark and walk to next bowl to drop treat in
  5. Move down the line of bowls:  drop treat, dog eats and reorients, mark, walk to next bowl.  No cueing, only verbal is marking
  6. IF dog is gazing off or worried by something that the line of bowls heads toward or if dog starts sniffing and not lifting her head up
  7. At the end of the line turn and go back repeating until you get to the first bowl.

Here is a video demonstrating teaching superbowls: