Heeling Amika

Yesterday, we went back to our spot and after a short heel session we ran around. We didn’t stay long, but I wanted to make sure she was OK with the place, and she seemed fine other than a little bit of vigilance getting out of the car.

In the afternoon, we practiced heeling in the front yard. It went really well, new head collar and all, until the neighbours walked their dog past. She did react, but it was more on the lines of “hey- there’s another dog there!” rather than a full scale reaction like she has had. I was able to LAT a couple times before she got that it was approching (along the sidewalk, other side of the fence) and then walked her to the porch past / parallel to it. I didn’t have to fight her- she was partially coming with me, partially controlled by the collar.

She woofed a bit on the porch, but it wasn’t a spaz attack, it was her being a good guard dog and telling me someone (a dog, not so much the people) was out there. She settled down rapidly, and so did I. Rather than quitting, which I would normally do, I took her back out there and did heeling work. Initially she was vigilant, but quickly realised the dog was gone. I’m impressed at how she handled this.

She did some good heeling, going out to the end of the drive and curving around on the sidewalk. I was only asking for a couple of steps at a time most times, so high rate of reinforcement. Sent her to sniff a couple of times, and she came back for more after a brief sniff.

After heading back to the front step, some kids came past and stopped in the drive to watch. We did LAT with the kids until she was OK (not long) and then I put her through her paces, seeing as we had an audience. She did turns both ways, which is a good measure of her mental function. We went in after the kids got bored and wandered off.

So yesterday was a quiet day (other than playing under the hose) but a good one. Today was even quieter, since we missed the trip to the park and just did our mini-walk. She was distracted by some of our free ranging ginea pigs so I “quit” and went back to the porch. Then I tried again with fewer steps / higher rate of reinforcement, plus some “LAT pig”. I have added the cue to “heel” and she has even figured out getting into heel from front based on some shaping stuff I did last month and a little hand gesture for help. Clever!