Gummi's Puppy Diary updated March 23 (pix and plans)

First topic message reminder :

Okay, so I've been thinking about writing down our progress and challenges as Gummi grows up. Partly to have documentation in the future and partly to keep myself motivated. We haven't gotten as much training done as I'd have wanted, but finally started in the last week or so.

This was one trick my little mountain goat didn't need much training to learn, jumping onto big rocks on command.

You've gotta love clickertraining. Got out the largest of Nimbus' old racing muzzles and the left over piece of roast pork from my dinner (not much). Took him 3 attempts to figure out it was a target he had to stick his nose into, two more to realize it was a freeze-target (stay in there) and then I just had to fasten it. Would have been even easier with a treat that could be stuck through the muzzle, but he did so well! ♥ Now he's all waggy happiness if I get the muzzle out. I'm hoping he'll never need one, but if he does (traveling abroad to cities where they are required or a severe injury for instance) it should make it that much easier.

Time for an update! The last session of the obedience class was last week, so here is an update on how we did on the different behaviors.
Focus (looking at the owner) Haven't worked much on this. He'll check in with me often and easily, but haven't worked on maintaining the focus.
Targeting We've got the mouse pad, target stick, palm target, "beak" target, muzzle as a target and freezing on the target down. Not bad! He also considers his crate and the dog bed as a target and just recently learned to drop an object into a bucket - making the bucket a target. He's really gotten target savvy!
Sit he's fluently offering the sit, and will remain seated if I tempt him with anything (but not without the luring as an aid - ironic how the luring can aid him into staying, huh?!)
Hind quarter control/awareness He'll back up if I back up, as long as we walk next to a wall or something. Have tried a few corners and that worked well.
Find the heel position while the owner is standing still He cannot find it from every direction, but he can find it if he comes from my front or left side. Need to pick this up and work more on it!
Recall He'll come without any issues - but I need to work on this with more distractions
Walking + looking up Not too good here - he's having a too hard time keeping all paws on the ground when I walk backwards! He will walk in a heel position and offer focus for a while, though, so I really just have to keep working on it!
Down Same as for the sit
Stand He'll remain standing if I have a lure, but hasn't understood the "stand" in itself
Stay (as in remaining in the position) as mentioned above - will stay but not too long without a lure
Doggie-Zen Quite good - the main issue is making sure he'll remember where the reward is as he'll loose the focus on it once we start working. I probably need to use a better reward for this!
Hold He's fluent at picking up the dumbbell, and will bring it back to me if I throw it, but when sitting still he can't hold it very long until I pull on it so he has to actively resist letting it go
Drop He will drop an object when given a "thank you" cue, and he will let a toy go when we're playing and I become passive. He can also pick up certain objects and drop them into a bucket - still working on this but I'm very happy with him.
Jumping an obstacle Only started with this on the final session - one person on each side of the jump and then he went back and forth between us without any issues once he got the concept. Will have to work a lot more with this, though! You need an assistant, or at least it makes it easier, so haven't done any of it at home.
Scent discrimination Unfortunately we didn't get around to this..

We've done more relaxation work..

Here he's at a big dog show - he's not actually relaxed, though, he's just offering the behavior!


I'm very happy with him, though, and the fact that it's becoming a default behavior for him when nothing else is happening.


And he's learned to jump into this chair and stay there - still a work in progress but he's doing great.


Here he's off leash in the chair, in a big hall full of dogs and people, with people showing their dogs in the ring (green) right ahead of us. Not bad for a silly puppy.


Some work on the drop-in-bucket thing I mentioned above.




We've also done a little blood tracking and he's a star! Can't wait to get hold of some more blood and make it longer and more difficult.

Your dog is brilliant!

sounds like he's coming along a treat (pardon the punn) well done everyone

wow gummi has grown so much and well done to you the hard work is really paying off

Thanks! We're having lots of fun. Have been doing a little crate games and other things from the on line Recallers class we're taking with Susan Garrett. Seems to be a really great class.

Can't JUST do that, though. So in addition to the Recallers games I've been working on his hindquarter awareness. Like most dogs he seems to think his body ends at his shoulders. Not sure if I'll use this trick for anything useful, but at least he learned something new!

Thanks for the update. Gummi reminds me so much of Tyson in looks. Wish Tyson was as good though

Ty wrote:Wish Tyson was as good though

Better start the training, then!

We met up with a fellow Recaller yesterday and did some training! I was really great and I can't wait to get together again in January. We did different kinds of recall and Gummi got to meet a bitch in heat for the first time and did some training with that. He was allowed to sniff and play with her as long as he returned to me when called, did hand targets and such.

Time for an update! Not much going on lately, but I finally got around to collecting all the training related video clips I could find.. so here's a bit of a brag video. Not everything we did last year, but at least most of the stuff I got on video.




We've begun obedience part II and did the theory this week - next week is the first actual night of training. It's mostly about building the obedience exercises from the basic behaviors we've been training so far and getting stimulus control (=verbal command or other kind of command).

"just being cute" is obviously something little Gummi has mastered!

Herman's Human wrote:"just being cute" is obviously something little Gummi has mastered!

LOL - yes he's got that one down, too! Thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KuTReI0vq0
I'm so proud of my little Gummi today - he's really starting to grow up and of course we've been doing the training for a while now so it just keeps accelerating. But I still would NOT have believed this possible when we started working on it just a few days ago!

Also - adding the suitcase video in this thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dbnj1T-Etw

And we've signed up for agility classes this July - agility camp, actually. 4 days - that will be fun!

Gummi is doing so well! Well done

From obedience training on Wednesday (I snatched some stills from a video, hence the quality)






Sadly I over slept and didn't make it to our class on Monday.. sigh.. The one next week is the last one... But we've got a scent work course (weekend) a few weeks from now and the training sessions with our local dog club starts up again next week so we should have enough to do!