Fun at the park

24/12/08

We took Amika to the park. Started with her on the regular lead and collar, asking for sits etc. I want to work this into her offering a lot more attention initially when we get somewhere. At the moment it is mostly an orient when she gets out of the car, then go sniff. In other words, I want her to focus for longer before she is rewarded with sniffing.

I also had the harness and tyre set-up on .and we ran her around quite a bit. The main objective was to wear her out, and it worked well. This time I took water, so she could have a drink rather then needing to go home. Just as I was going to do some relaxation on the mat, my partner disappeared up a tree. This made for somewhat anxious work on the mat, but she was taking food eagerly between looking for him. She stood up a few times. I think I need to work on shaping a duration stay and release cue from the mat.

She saw someone walking a dog while we were sitting under the tree with her on the mat (at 30m away- across the creek, crossing the road) and had a reactive response. She was barking with hackles and I did the body block thing (she was beyond LAT). Basically I ended up holding onto her head, pressing it into my chest. She fought this to see the other dog, but I kept at it until it was out of sight (the owner decided to go back to the oval, wonder why?). This is so not an ideal way to deal, but I revert to my previous training at these times. Probably what I should to is haul her in the other direction (kicking and screaming).

After calming down and more running, I tried to bring the “puppy” into the picture. She has been so “ho hum” about it at home. I think it was a mistake, but I wanted to see what the level of response was. The car was about 20m away, and I left her with Dion holding the leash. I got the “pup” out of the back of the car, brought it around the side up to the curb, and had is jiggling on its leash. She reacted. So I’m not sure if it was that she had already seen a dog and was primed, or that she was doing the VSA thing for me, or the way the toy moved (which in retrospect I haven’t done at home yet). Probably a combo of all. So the toy went away, the dog shut up and I went back over there.

More running and then we went home where Amika crashed for quite a few hours. Apart from the running, that tyre is a heavy thing to pull! We removed a few reed splinters from her hide while she was practicing the prone position (from the swim in the Blackwood- she was leaping about in the reeds). She has gotten very good at letting us mess with her, though she did make scary noises and wave her teeth around.

In the afternoon, we did some relaxing on the front porch on the mat. We played LAT, I brushed her some, and fortunately I spotted the other GSD coming and took her in before she saw it. She carried on once inside the front door on her bed. She knew she was missing something out there, probably cued by my body language. Maybe I can work my blocking into a happy game of some sort? I’ll have to think on that one!

Back on the mat, we did some RP like stuff, and I got the pup out to hang on the front gate again. Again, no big response. This time I worked in some jiggling on the lead and she watched intently, but didn’t move. I’m going to work this up to me running back and forth with the puppy here at home before taking it on the road. I will then use the box the pup lives in to work starting closer to Amika at the park.

I’ll start doing more formal RP while we are at the park too- leave my partner behind so she can’t worry about what he is up to. My distance is a problem for her. Thus I’ll start just bringing out the pup and leaving it still, then once I can move with it I will add me moving around at a distance from her as an extra criterion for the RP work. This is a good skill for her to have anyway, but it will help set the scene for when we bring a live dog into the picture at a distance.