08 August 2007

Follow the Bad One.


OK-Here is what Gustavo has learned to do in a low distraction environment-ie, my backyard with the other dogs locked in the house and they are howling and making weird noises to come out to have a turn.

Sit (very useful at all times!)
Down (even more useful at all times!)
Run to a towel and lay down (very useful at the beach! it will have more agility uses later)
Wait in a sit (I use this instead of stay because people always yell stay at dogs and this is like a secret word that means do not move at all!)
Wait in a down (I like em to stay put-the sit and down has a builtin stay function since he is supposed to stay in that position until released)
Wait at the gate when it is opened or closed
Touch his nose to a target
Come to his name when called, I am just starting to use the word come with this.
Running fast into his crate and staying in there until released

So now we are starting to move these skills to higher distraction environments like work and the beach and parking lots at fun places like Home Depot, and at home teach:
Positioning through my legs to the right
Positioning around me to the left
Nose touching target in different locations
Side and close for walking and running staying located at my side, we can't really teach this on walks because too many dogs everywhere I look. Same thing at the beach since the other dogs think training is like a trip to Target and everyone wants to be right there, in the front to see what presents it will bring.
Roll over - he is cute so he will have to learn some cute tricks

We are using a combination of food and tugging. He is not going to be sent out away from me as much as I did with Pop to get a toy, he is learning to come in and tug on it, then at the end he can go chase the thing.

What is Gustavo learning from the other dogs?

Play rough. If you are playing with Otterpop, you need to play rough.

Jump into the window to look for Evil Mailmen! I am sure that learning to bark at them is just around the corner.

Get the cat. He already has more of a cat fetish than anyone else here and they actually follow his lead to get the cat. At least the cat thinks that he is no force to be reckoned with and completely blows him off but I did see him try to put her head in his mouth. Her head is way bigger than his mouth though. He will get over that, especially if he tries it with a barn cat.

Run around and go insane when I get home. I ignore them, I yell at them, but they just go insane no matter what I do. Otterpop does I mean. And what Otterpop does, he wants to do. Of course he falls in love with the Bad One. Why not perfect Ruby? Why not model oneself after Timmy Best Dog? Because Otterpop is possibly cool in her Badness and he might want to be like her.

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