4th update from Canada

Training somehow worked the last days!!!

Sachi and Mura are doing great steps with the recall training. I used different methods training them but both work well.

1st method: blowing the whistle, calling her name, tibit if she reacts/ comes
I choosed this method for Sachi cause she already had a great reaction to her name, and so Im only working on replacing her name with the sound of the whistle

2nd method: blowing the whistle, giving a tibit
It's like the Clicker-Method, Im just using a whistle instead of the Clicker and am trying to building up a positive link between the sound and the tibit. This method worked well on Mura cause she didnt reacted on her name but I was able to get her full attention just with one tibit. After giving one to her she is following me almost endless begging for more. She would be great in Obedience cause you really have her full attention!!

Today I went a step further, and used the whistle during a long on-leash walk through a wood. So we were out of the accustomed training ground and there were many distractions. For Mura it worked out well, cause the distractions were big enough to get her away from me, and she was hoggish enough to come back for the whistletibit :)

Sachi had some litte problems cause she was really very excited and not as hoggish as Mura. But she als did a great job, I just had to use her name after whistling.

One thing I've learned: You have to differ between the many kinds of sniffing cause they have different levels of distraction.

• sniffing for knowing who was there?, whats this? etc - lowest distraction lvl
• sniffing for finding the right place to marking-pissing-shitting - high distraction lvl
• sniffing a track of an animal - high distraction lvl
• sniffing on potential food - highest distraction lvl

So on our walk today I saw that their recallconnection is only on a low distraction lvl and I have to slowly highen up the lvl and espeacially be aware of their bodylanguage to catch whats going on in their minds :)

Satos Show-Training
Yesterday I began training with little Sato (Shiba puppy). I want to see if theres an alternative way for training dogs for the examination during dog shows, cause I dont like the way its done at the moment. But time runs out and rain has come back. Its not great fun training outside during heavy rain.

Training steps:

• Conditioning on the Clicker
• Sato tips with his nose on my open hand - click - tibit
• Sato tips longer with his nose on my open hand
• training on a longer duration - delay the click for little timesteps - tibit
• Sato holds contact between nose and hand even if i move my hand
• Sato allows to manipulate his feets etc for bringing him in the right position while tipping my hand
• Sato stays still with his nose on my hand, while another person (judge) is touching him on different bodyparts

General handling training with all dogs
With all dogs Im doing some general training during walking them (unfortunately I cant walk all dogs, 15 is too much)

• staying calm during I open their kennel and put them on the leash - this takes much time: every movement from my side triggers another jumping, barking, running explosion in which all dogs of the kennel join in
• waiting calm while Im opening a gate or the kennel door
• Sit and down

Yes this was my training update from Canada, you see I have lots of things to do :)

Bye, Bye yours Lisa