Neither M.E. or Mopus are picking up the the Gee and Ha commands in harness. Marley had learned it easily on runs and by being told the command on leash; Marvin figured it out while working with Marley. The pointer sisters are not getting it and I don't have them much on leash or any other setting which I could take advantage of to teach them directional concepts. I think, in harness they are so focused on running that they don't care as much as Marley about getting directions; they are contenting in the guess work.
I'm a believer that each dog has its better way to learn, I like finding what suite each of my dogs. I tried a few tricks without a satisfying response from them, until I picked this up from agility dog techniques. I'm hoping this will work...
While they are not running, not playing in a more static mode, my hyper-crazy mutt heads should be more available to process what's going on and associate the words with turning there head in the right direction.
First step was, tap side of the dog, treat when the head turns, next I call a Gee or Ha, if the dog turns the head in the right direction, dog gets the treat. Anyway, I'm going from there...it might need refining.
M'Opus gets tangled every single time we start a run. She won't stay up front, bounces around and when I do get her to stop moving, she can't help facing towards me. I need to change that. Ideally she will stand strait looking forward and wait for a go command to bounce forward.
There a few things I want here:
-Stay still
-Dog on front of me and orientated in the same direction as me
-Looking forward
-Standing
Those are challenges for a stressed dog which feels comforted by visual contact.
I go step by step.
We have been working a simple stay, with me moving around Mopus. Staying is something that I got easily from her but except that she would spin on the spot as I moved around her. She really wants to keep that eye contact.
Once stay was understood as "stay on that spot". I started back with some stays with out moving as far from her. Actually, I would keep my legs almost glued to Mopus but move myself behind her, if she stayed in that position, butt end towards me I rewarded reaching on front of Mopus to give the treat in that same position with her nose pointing forward. At this point, I don't care if Mopus is sitting or standing, all I want is her back facing me.
On the next step, I do the same motion but take one step back, braking the contact between my legs and the dog. I make that short step back forward and reward. As the dog gets the gesture, I move more steps back.
Next, that's where the video is at, I move away, behind Mopus without staying glued on her. You can see there how she is having a hard time not spinning towards me but knows what I'm expecting. I don't really care at this point what direction she is facing, as long as when I am moving away from her she keeps her back towards me.
M'Opus is asking me to be patient, I'm realizing more and more how
much of a pack of nerve she is...she just doesn't show it so well. I'm
starting to realize how much of her uncontrolled joyfulness is actually
her way to relieve her stress. I don't want to break out her joyful self
but I need to teach her to have better control over it.
I didn't read her right, I didn't see how much she was stressed...i should of taken it slower. Sometimes when it goes to well, when what we see is what we want to see, we just keep wanting more. This was only the second time M'Opus was harnessed in the pulk shafts. The first time, I was smart enough to keep it short. There again, I should of stopped sooner, before all the the stress built up... Easy to say after the fact, I''m still learning to know this girl. Unlike her sister, M'Opus doesn't say much, I need to keep in mind that she isn't as confident as she appears and her stress signals are very subtle.
So here we are... She was doing fine but now has decided that the shafts are scary. Lets see if we can fix that.
I went out to the trails with only M'Opus today. It was a little too late to profit from morning chill, therefore hotter than ideal to run a dog. I thought that since I could expect Mopus to be slower, I would dare some single track....Wow! I didn't expect such training benefit from running on a single track.
On the narrow twisty trail, M'Opus was very attentive to what was going on behind; more than ever, I felt her attentive to my commands and directions. When we came to intersections she was clearly looking for instructions. I think that short runs on single track might become part of our training, I think there is an opportunity there to reinforce good communication and response between me and my dog.
M.E. Fhast showed me something interesting today. I was working on the whaooo with her. All we do is run together and when I say Whaooo ooo we both STOP! And reward. It's working really well, she has figured out that the Whaooo ooo is a stop. Eventually I will delay stopping myself and leave her the first initiative on the command. Anyway, that was not the interesting part. Once in a while we get this strange reaction form our dog and wonder what on earth went through there head. Most often I think the reactions have a good explanation. On one of our STOP! M.E. bucked, gave me this worried look and didn't come to my hand for her reward. ???? Quick play back in my head...realization! My command came out wrong. I use a looong, extended whaaaoooo ooo to indicate a stop but this time, by mistake, from the excitement about my dog picking up so well, I gave a dry Wo! ...well that sounds the hell of a lot like a No! M.E. is one of those dogs that wants to do well, doing wrong upsets her. Doing wrong and not knowing what has really put her off. I sat down, comforted her a little and we did one more run and stop but my mistake had upset her spirit, not worth keeping going. Lesson learned, next time I'll do better.
