I've been having some serious A.D.D. lately! Anytime I sit down to post an update, something comes up that I have to mess with, ugh.... but now here I am, yay! It has been a crazy summer so far.
Training Nemster has been going pretty well, with some challenges, in between all of the rain that we've had. I met with Terri last night to work on some of his weirdo issues that have come up in the past couple of months (hormones...). On lead he has been going nuts when he sees another dogs, especially a moving one. So we worked with her dog walking circles around Nemo, and C/T everytime he sat calmly. We figured out that his "comfort zone" for a moving dog is 15 feet and 5 feet for a stationary dog. He did great walking directly behind and in front of Roo (Terri's dog), if I held a target stick with some peanut butter on it right in front of his nose. He completely forget that Roo was there, he was so focused on that peanut butter :) So we're going to work on shortening and fading the stick eventually.
We also worked on him walking right past her dog with my giving him cookies as soon as he saw her dog and on up to her, but no cookies after we passed her. So hopefully soon he will learn that another dog = cookies! He's also developed a fear of some strangers - mostly men, he will squeeky bark and try to hide, all the while wagging his tail (told you they were weirdo issues..). So Terri had her son and husband walk circles around Nemo and toss cookies at him. After a while Nemo was eating out of their hands and doing pretty well.
She thinks a lot of this is age and he just doesn't know what to quite do with himself. She said the cases like this that she's seen before, where the dog has been well socialized and has had no traumatic experience, have "outgrown" the behavior by 12-15 months old with continued exposure like this to people and dogs.
OTHER THAN THAT :) he's been doing great! We've been doing mostly flat-work, which I want to have down solid before starting any obstacles, since I have no clue what I am doing handling. He's learned to target great and we're beginning table work. Since he's lost his puppy fat he's gotten tons of energy and is fast fast fast!
Ok so that's all that I have for now! I've been meaning to take some new pictures but... The stinkers all had baths yesterday so maybe I will get to it today.
I promise I'll do better! :)
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2 comments:
Keep up the good work socializing. He will keep improving. My gang is sooo food motivated too and the peanut butter on the stick trick would work every time for my gang! hehehe
Hey did that stubborn testicle ever drop?
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