Booger's Briar Patch (Boot Camp Day 2)

Booger’s Briar Patch (Boot Camp Day 2):

It seems little Brer Rabbit has really out foxed us all. He has worked it so that he gets lots more treats and lots more attention. And all by simply not doing what I asked him to do (in the ring)!

Ahem. Well, if I have to be the fox, at least I could have the title "Foxy Mama" or something, right?!

So, since the last posting, we had 1 fun training session last night in a separate room from all the other dogs. We had a bag of yummy home-made tripe and veggie treats, and we revisited lots of old fun tricks we haven ‘t done in years (like crawl, close the door.)  He remembered them all!  We did all of the old tricks WITHOUT ANY TREATS until the very last “game” (guess which hand).

Last night, instead of learning a new “trick”, I decided that we’d work on eye contact and “watch me”. Also, I introduced the “positive interrupter” sound which 2 of my other dogs are learning now in puppy class.

BUT GET THIS! 

He didn’t want to make “real” eye contact with me for quite awhile! 

He would sort of “almost” make eye contact (looking at my nose, or giving me that nose down, eyes up, “hairy eyeball" look.) I think he KNEW what I wanted, though, because he used to be awesome at “watch me”. However, to be on the safe side, we did lots of shaping ….clicking for even the BRIEFEST millisecond of true eye contact. We worked a long time and he finally ‘submitted.’

I thought this was very telling (and a little sad!) that he wouldn't make real eye contact. (EVEN when treats were involved!)

We ended the session with some fun fetch and tug-of-war play. (He hasn’t been able to do this without other dogs interrupting for a long, long time. It took us awhile to get back that play raport and trust that we used to have.)

He went to work camp again for this morning’s breakfast, but we solely worked on “watch me”. He was still a little resistant, but we ended on a sit/stay (with me sitting on the floor in front of him) and he kept his eyes GLUED to mine for at least 2 minutes. True eye contact with soft (ok, googly) eyes. (I was going to aim for 3 minutes but I wanted to pour another cup of coffee.)

Tonight, we did another training session (in a separate room from the other dogs) working on a new heel position.

A pom owner recently suggested that it’s unnatural and uncomfortable for a small dog to look at the handler’s face while heeling. Boog has always looked at my face when heeling, (except of course in the recent trials …. ahem….), so it will be interesting to see if we can relearn this new way.

Here was our "plan":

1)  Revisiting the “touch” (using a plastic lid top attached to the end of a target stick). (Touching with nose, not paw).

2) We free-shaped actually LOOKING at the lid …. Every time he glanced at it I click and treated 

3) Then, we heeled while I held the target stick down, with the lid to the side of my left leg just below the knee. Working on him looking at the lid, not my eyes, while heeling. 

4)  Then, (when this didn't always work:), I put some peanut butter on the lid and we did it again. 

Here is a short video clip of some of our efforts ... 

Not sure how this "baby step" of peanut butter on the lid will help him, but perhaps it will at least get him more excited about the lid. (I'm flying blind here, trying to develop ways to train on my own!)

We'll try this new "approach" to heeling tomorrow for his boot camp breakfast :) 

Fly little Brer rabbit Booger, pug, fly!