July 16, 2008 - Bad Dog!
Some internal switch has been flipped in my dog that has caused her to transform from meek little Mika to a holy terror of a puppy! Anyone who has worked with Mals would probably tell me I'm finally seeing her true personality.
Last week I worried how I would increase her prey drive. This week I wonder how in the hell I will contain it. The past few nights when we play Ball and the Wall, I've seen her energy up. But today, we had a chance to introduce the dogs to the agility course--nothing serious, just expose them to it--and Mika's prey drive went through the roof. I lured her through the weave polls, jumped her through the tire jump, over the A-frame, and through the open tunnel. At first she was scared and confused about the tunnel so we shortened it up and I crawled most of the way inside to encourage her. After that it was game on!
I sent her through the tunnel again and she shot out of it like a bat out of hell. I gave her tons of praise and a treat. After that we quickly ran out of treats so I put her in "Climb", which means she gets up on a painter's bench and has to stay there until I give her the "Free" command. She can stand, sit, lay down, and move around on the bench, but she cannot get off the bench until tell her she can. We've been practicing this daily and testing it in different scenarios with various distractions and she's pretty consistent, until the agility course, that is.
Today she was so loaded into the excitement of activity that after about 3 minutes on the bench she literally vaulted off the bench and flew around the training hall, crazed. I couldn't catch her and I couldn't call her. She was wild!
After a couple of laps around the room one of the instructors stomped on the leash as she sailed by and....snap! She reached the end of the leash, at full speed and it threw her back. She knew she was busted. After that all she wanted to do was get back to me and get her little butt back on the bench.
So the lesson here for me is to make sure her "climb" is tested and she is really solid when there's lots of excitement going on. The instructor suggested keeping her on a longer lead--like 15 feet or so--during these exercises so that I have more time to get a hold of or step on the line if she breaks her "climb".
Last week I worried how I would increase her prey drive. This week I wonder how in the hell I will contain it. The past few nights when we play Ball and the Wall, I've seen her energy up. But today, we had a chance to introduce the dogs to the agility course--nothing serious, just expose them to it--and Mika's prey drive went through the roof. I lured her through the weave polls, jumped her through the tire jump, over the A-frame, and through the open tunnel. At first she was scared and confused about the tunnel so we shortened it up and I crawled most of the way inside to encourage her. After that it was game on!
I sent her through the tunnel again and she shot out of it like a bat out of hell. I gave her tons of praise and a treat. After that we quickly ran out of treats so I put her in "Climb", which means she gets up on a painter's bench and has to stay there until I give her the "Free" command. She can stand, sit, lay down, and move around on the bench, but she cannot get off the bench until tell her she can. We've been practicing this daily and testing it in different scenarios with various distractions and she's pretty consistent, until the agility course, that is.
Today she was so loaded into the excitement of activity that after about 3 minutes on the bench she literally vaulted off the bench and flew around the training hall, crazed. I couldn't catch her and I couldn't call her. She was wild!
After a couple of laps around the room one of the instructors stomped on the leash as she sailed by and....snap! She reached the end of the leash, at full speed and it threw her back. She knew she was busted. After that all she wanted to do was get back to me and get her little butt back on the bench.
So the lesson here for me is to make sure her "climb" is tested and she is really solid when there's lots of excitement going on. The instructor suggested keeping her on a longer lead--like 15 feet or so--during these exercises so that I have more time to get a hold of or step on the line if she breaks her "climb".
5 Comments:
At July 17, 2008 at 7:35 PM , Meghan said...
Have you noticed her growing?
At July 18, 2008 at 12:31 AM , Shannon said...
She growls when she plays with her tug toys but this is desired behavior and will segway her to do the Schutzhund work.
Occasionally she growls at other dogs but she always gets a correction so she's learning their's zero tolerance.
All of the dogs here are doing well with avoiding contact. They can sit two feet away but they are not allowed to have interaction. When you sit that close but can't have contact you quickly learn not to throw gang signs to other dogs.
She does get pretty pissed when she can hear dogs in the next room training if they are riled up. Overall though she's an excellent puppy.
At July 18, 2008 at 11:49 AM , Meghan said...
I said grow, not growl, smart one... I hope she's teaching you to read ;-)
At July 19, 2008 at 12:12 AM , Shannon said...
Yes, she's growing too. And tonight I taught her how to growl so she'll bite your ass when I get home!
At July 19, 2008 at 9:51 AM , Meghan said...
Good... My ass has gotten fat and I've got some to spare...
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