Meggie Basic Manners Week Two

Meggie is acing Basic Manners at Lucky Dog Training! She's rocking nose touches, sits, "Leave it!" and down stays,  -- all while turning it into a tasty game. Adding recall fun and perfecting loose leash walking, it's all about rewarding that calm and settled vibe!

Pearls:

• Meggie is continuing to rock in basic manners group class at Lucky Dog Training Center. This week we warmed up with nose touches, short sit stays, and releases. We practiced brief down-stays adding duration while the handler steps or turns away. 

• We introduced the "Leave it!" cue, where the dog avoids taking a dropped piece of food. Phase one of leave it is while your hand is closed, you cue "Leave it!" and as soon as Meggie relaxes off of worrying the treat in my closed hand, I reward her with a cookie from my other hand. Phase two is the same but having a treat in my open hand while Meggie leaves it and is rewarded with a cookie from my other hand.

• Continue to reinforce calm, settled behavior when Meggie is relaxed on the floor.

• We played recall for the first time, using "Meggie here!" as our cue. Always reward both cued recalls and captured check-ins. 

• Loose leash walking is coming along nicely, with added steps and using the marker word "Yes!"

Meggie Freedom Run

Freeeeeeeeeee! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

After 121 long days of activity restriction due to ongoing heartworm treatment, Meggie is medically cleared by her veterinarian Dr. Jenny Elkins to resume normal, vigorous, physical activity.

To celebrate we went for a romp!

This sweet girl is available for adoption through BCSAVE.

Meggie's freedom run:

Jackie Exterior Nosework

Jackie did her first exterior finds, first on a vehicle and then from a group of objects. The vehicle search came easily for Jackie, quickly alerting all three hides on the truck. 

In the group of outdoor objects Jackie found the first of two hides easily, then struggled to pinpoint the alert on the second hide. She eventually found it and did a great job overall for her first exterior searches. 

Pearls:

• For outdoor searches, follow the format: 1) potty, 2) wind, 3) plan.

• Potty = be sure your dog potties before starting an exterior search.  Sniffing outdoors, especially in grass, can make them want to go so be sure they eliminate before starting your exterior search.

• Wind = carefully assess how the wind is behaving in the search area. Wind behaves differently between buildings and around vehicles. Watching your dog's fur or tossing a few strands of grass up and watching how it falls are simple ways to assess wind movement. 

• Plan = base your search on how the wind is behaving and what environment you're searching. For vehicles, it's best to search with the wind, due to the way wind behaves around vehicles, getting stopped, moved, or caught in wheel wells or underneath vehicles for example. For out-in-the-open groups of item searches, it is best to search against the wind so your dog can evaluate the odor as they approach the objects. 

• Once your dog has found a hide in a multiple-hide search, after paying at source say "Find more!" to cue the dog to continue searching for more hides. 

• When searching multiple hides, only ever pay once for each hide. While training, if your dog struggles by returning to an already found hide, remove that hide from the search area and then continue by cueing "Find more!"

My dog has a nose job