Filling The Holes

[leih merigian]

I love listening to my dog. She's always very happy to tell me where the holes are in my training . Then, once I find one, I can work on filling it.

Of course, the ideal thing is to figure it all out before you train something and make sure you don't leave any holes that need filling, or even worse, retraining. But, being human, I tend to find that I end up leaving holes, here and there, and Geyser is very good at showing them to me .

Here's one recent example. We do a lot of differernt nose work kinds of things, from formal K9 nosework, to different versions of "find it." She has a great nose and hunt drive, so she excells at all of this.

When we're out hiking trails, I'll leave something behind and send her to find it. When she returns, big party and fun fetching ensues. (Some of you may remember she found the camera I lost when I fell in the woods, when she was 6 months old; that's one of the benefits of this kind of game .)

At first, I wanted to focus on her being able to work away from me, so I kept extending the distance of the find, and she became very comfortable going out of my sight, going quite a long distance to find the item, usually a toy.

Then, a few weeks ago, I dropped the little ball on a string and only walked about 15 steps, called her to me and sent her to find it. She blew right past the find and went off in search of some far away item. Eventually, she found it, but I realized what was going on pretty quickly; I'd been so focused on working on distance work that I'd neglected to vary the distance to the find, always.

Pretty easy to fix, tho. I just started dropping the find closer to me, then sending her, and she got used to searching right away, rather than zooming off to start her search much further from me. After a couple of days of that, I started to vary the drops; some are far, some medium, some near, and she never knows which, but what I now love is that she puts her nose down and starts searching immediately, and will keep going until she finds whatever it is.

So, what holes have you been filling lately? (man, do we have some cute emoticons! Nobody digging, tho )

[Lauren]

I just noticed today that i have not been using "side" (heel on my right) as much as "heel" (on my left). It is just more comfortable for me and now, for her, too.

Xena and I were doing some desensitization work around horses at a horse show and she could pull off a heel, and sit when I stopped, but our "side" was sloppy at best and she just lays down at an angle when I stop... I had been making her down on my right for herding.

We will be working out that little kink! On the upside, she was great around the horses; curious but not reactive, and also with the little charging dachshund who was dragging it's little girl about.

We have come a LONG WAY!!!! HOORAY!

[wahinelf]

The "holes" I'm filling right now are embarrassing. Ellie is taking a CGC prep course right now, just to practice the skills she'll need for the test. She's actually doing really well, I thought we'd have trouble with walking up to another handler with a dog and "exchanging pleasantries" while dogs remain calmly at our sides, but she's doing fine due to all the work I've put into her "watch" (focus command).

BUT...during the "sit calmly for petting" portion of training she immediately wants to go into a "paw" or "sit pretty" for whoever is petting her. Our instructor said that lifting one paw shouldn't cause her to fail her test, but lifting both off of the ground would most likely disqualify her.

I HAVE TO RETRAIN HER TO SIT.

Now, thats just a sad hole that needs to be filled.

[leih merigian]

Well, look at the bright side for Ellie...at leats she's doing something friendly when she breaks her sit

[leih merigian]

We have come a LONG WAY!!!! HOORAY!

You really have!

[felixone123]

I have too many holes since my work with Odin has really just begun, but all your stories inspire me to fill these holes

[Lauren]

Now, thats just a sad hole that needs to be filled.

It is the little things, isn't it?

I, too, am very envious of those classes.. What FUN!!!!

[leih merigian]

I have too many holes since my work with Odin has really just begun, but all your stories inspire me to fill these holes

Glad to be of service

The good news here is that you didn't create the holes to begin with...you're fixing someone else's holes, and that's something that earns major kudos, to my way of thinking

(Not to worry; you'll create some of your own as you go , but that's part of the fun of the training process, if you ask me, which of course, no one did )