July 11, 2008 - Friday is the new Thursday
While the rest of you gear up for the weekend, for me Friday is the new Thursday. Here, we attend school Tuesday through Saturday, with Saturdays being the day when local clients bring their pets to the training center to participate in group training classes with their pet dogs. The center will be a buzz of activity.
Today we learned about various training approaches, one of the funnest being Free Shaping. Free Shaping has to be the most non-invasive form of training out there. You simply watch a dog freely react to his environment and when he displays behavior your like, you use a clicker to mark the exact moment the dog is doing the desired behavior. The click from the clicker signifies a reward treat is coming. This is a great way to get the basic training process started with new dog because you can mark the moment when they sit or lay down and teach them that these are desired behaviors. We will be practicing Free Shaping tomorrow and next week.
We also had a Q & A session where students were able to get clarification on a lot of the information covered for the week. Many students are just starting to get their puppies and, like me, they are worried about doing something wrong and screwing their puppies up during the crucial early weeks. The things these puppies learn when they are tiny with become their default behavior for the rest of their lives. The idea is to do everything you can to make that default behavior something desirable. Otherwise you'll have to try to correct any unwanted default behaviors which is harder than setting them on the right path to begin with.
In the afternoon all the students were invited to "the ranch". The ranch is the home of the school founder and instructor. He has 250 acres, much of which is open land intended for the purpose of dog training. Here we can practice tracking, recall with our dogs from far away distances, and as a reward our pups can swim in one of 7 ponds! Students has access to the fields anytime they desire and we can even camp out there if we want. (So if anyone wants to come for a visit and camp, just let me know!!)
Mika was also invited to the ranch and there we watch Schutzhund demonstrations as well as AKC obedience demonstrations. It was hotter than hell and she couldn't wait to come home and pass out. Me too, actually!
P.S. - I discovered that Mika has webbed toes so I'm just sure she'll be a stellar swimmer!
Today we learned about various training approaches, one of the funnest being Free Shaping. Free Shaping has to be the most non-invasive form of training out there. You simply watch a dog freely react to his environment and when he displays behavior your like, you use a clicker to mark the exact moment the dog is doing the desired behavior. The click from the clicker signifies a reward treat is coming. This is a great way to get the basic training process started with new dog because you can mark the moment when they sit or lay down and teach them that these are desired behaviors. We will be practicing Free Shaping tomorrow and next week.
We also had a Q & A session where students were able to get clarification on a lot of the information covered for the week. Many students are just starting to get their puppies and, like me, they are worried about doing something wrong and screwing their puppies up during the crucial early weeks. The things these puppies learn when they are tiny with become their default behavior for the rest of their lives. The idea is to do everything you can to make that default behavior something desirable. Otherwise you'll have to try to correct any unwanted default behaviors which is harder than setting them on the right path to begin with.
In the afternoon all the students were invited to "the ranch". The ranch is the home of the school founder and instructor. He has 250 acres, much of which is open land intended for the purpose of dog training. Here we can practice tracking, recall with our dogs from far away distances, and as a reward our pups can swim in one of 7 ponds! Students has access to the fields anytime they desire and we can even camp out there if we want. (So if anyone wants to come for a visit and camp, just let me know!!)
Mika was also invited to the ranch and there we watch Schutzhund demonstrations as well as AKC obedience demonstrations. It was hotter than hell and she couldn't wait to come home and pass out. Me too, actually!
P.S. - I discovered that Mika has webbed toes so I'm just sure she'll be a stellar swimmer!
posted by Shannon @ 3:25 PM
3 Comments:
At July 16, 2008 at 6:47 AM ,
Meghan said...
It's funny... You find out your dog has webbed toes and you think it's cool...But I bet you'd freak out if you found out your boyfriend had webbed toes.
At July 16, 2008 at 2:45 PM ,
Shannon said...
Yeah, or if your child was born that way.
At July 16, 2008 at 2:45 PM ,
Shannon said...
"This is my husband Derek...he's a really good swimmer!"
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