Meggie Graduation from Basic Manners

Meggie aced her Basic Manners group class at Lucky Dog Training, graduating with honors! We covered a lot of ground in this six-week class and I'm so proud of how well Meggie handles the training environment!

Pearls:

Among several other cues and behaviors, in Basic Manners class Meggie has perfected:

• "Place!" Going to place on cue from six feet away and going into down on place, then waiting until the release cue to get up, even with distractions.
  

• Loose Leash Walking. Meggie walks in heel position with a loose, looped leash in a figure 8 around two cones. (Meggie's whale eye is because something to the side of her was competing for her attention. Meggie was being a good girl and keeping her body focused forward on the handler. She was not displaying stress in this photo, but rather displaying a moment of split attention.)
  

• Recall (including Emergency Recall). Meggie plays the "Get it!" game and while she is turned away from the handler running away she whips back to the handler when she hears "Meggie here!"
  

• Sit Stay and Down Stay. Meggie happily holds a sit or down while I walk to the end of her leash, turn my back on her, or walk around her. She is then released with the cue "Break!"
  

• Wait at the Door. Meggie remains in sit while I open the door and walk through. When she is released with her cue "Break!" Meggie is allowed to walk through the doorway.
  

• Leave It. When Meggie sees something dropped on the floor, she avoids taking it in her mouth and is instead rewarded for looking up at her handler.

This highly talented and extremely intelligent pup is available for adoption through BCSAVE.

Treibball with Jackie: Successful Gathers, Fetches, and Pens

Jackie is making headway in figuring out the treibball experience. She did a great job today doing elemental gathers, fetches, and pens. 

Pearls:

• When sending your dog with "Go out!" and during play, keep your back centered to the goal so your dog has the optimum chance to push the ball directly into the goal. Jackie is reinforced for pushing the ball directly toward the handler, so use your body to help your dog direct the ball into the goal.

• Homework includes continuing to reinforce "Go out!" with distance, continue reinforcing "Whoah!" to indicate standing still, and begin teaching "Down!" from a distance.

• A good visual cue for "Down!" is the handler raising one arm straight up above their head. This is a very clear visual cue that the dog can understand at long distances and with noise distractions such as wind. 

Jackie making successful gathers, fetches, and pens:

Treibball is to herding what pickleball is the tennis. 

That's okay, it's still FUN! Not everyone has 40 acres and a flock of sheep.

Jackie Nosework: Interior Container, Exterior Vehicle, and Exterior Multiple Searches

Today Jackie played multiple Interior Container Searches with distractions, Interior Blank Search (a search with no hides), Exterior Vehicle Search, and Exterior Multiple Hides. Jackie's developing a reliable nose hold, and we are continuing to proof food distractions and study wind theory.

Pearls:

• When a blank search is completed, be sure to have a big celebration with lots of play and cookies so Jackie is doubly rewarded when there is no hide to find.

• The judge at a trial will DQ if they think you are trying to see the hide yourself, rather than relying on your dog. So just rely on your dog to do the job!

• At a trial, Jackie must alert within 12 inches of source. It's optimum if Jackie nose holds directly on source, especially while training. 

• When a hide is placed inside an object where the source is physically inaccessible, the dog must nose hold alert within 12 inches of the source.

• Often on inaccessible hides, the dog will go to the object's left, right, and center since she cannot physically access the source for a nose hold.

• The Tin Game is a good way to proof food distractions: Fill several tins with bacon, cheese, beef lung, or any delicious and smelly food and only pay when the tin with scent source is alerted. Keep rotating the source tin each round of the game. Toss a reset cookie, say "Get it!" and re-shuffle the tins while the dog is chasing the tossed cookie. Then cue "Search!" and pay when the dog nose holds at the source tin each round.

Jackie successfully finds multiple hides in Interior Containers, Exterior Vehicle, and Exterior Multiples:

Go Forward * Move Ahead * It's Not Too Late

Sniff It Good

Treibball with Jackie: A Rudimentary Gather

Jackie made her first successful gather! Once each individual cue is understood, they begin to come together quickly. 

Pearls:

• For "Walk up!" continue to use small increments of teaching each individual step so Jackie understands "Walk up!" means take a few steps until she hears "Whoa!" which means to stand in place. 

• Continue to reinforce confident "Go out!" with distance. Alternate sending the dog on her outrun from both directions, so the dog is used to going both clockwise and anti-clockwise while flanking the stock (ball).  

Clockwise outruns

Jackie makes her first rudimentary gather, fetch, and pen of the stock (ball):

Hiking with Meggie

Every day with Meggie is an adventure! From our scenic river hikes to the thrill of chasing tennis balls, she's soaking up every moment and blossoming into a true explorer. Join this journey of discovery with Meggie by your side!

Apply to adopt Meggie at BCSAVE.

Meggie playing ball: https://youtube.com/shorts/7EBW0GAFvnI?si=wgxbcIVoJ_7sMls5

Noswork with Jackie: Buried, Interior, and Super Single Searches

Jackie tackled various new searches, including water and wind challenges, demonstrating improved alerting behavior and proficiency finding buried scents. Despite minor distractions, Jackie's performance was impressive, prompting preparation for trialing and emphasizing the importance of trial environment familiarization and strategic training tactics. 

Jackie looking smarmy in her nosework harness and matching custom 10-foot Mendota lead

Jackie played several new searches today, including multiple hides buried in water and an outdoor search in the wind called a super single.

She also practiced interior searches finding multiple hides, and hides buried in sand. My ability to read Jackie's alert signal, freezing and holding nose on source, is getting stronger every time we play. 

The super single is where a single hide is hidden three to four feet above the ground surface level, far away from the start line, with the scent source placed upwind on a windy day so it is blowing directly toward the dog. 

It was interesting watching Jackie use her nose in the wind. At the startline, far from the super single source, Jackie immediately alerted on the startline cone. This would be a "false" alert at a trial, as scent is never placed on the startline cones themselves (though scent can be placed on the same plane as the startline). 

After our coach planted the super single source, she then returned to the start line and placed the cone. We're convinced Jackie alerted on the cone because of residual scent from the coach's hand. 

Once we removed the smelly cone, Jackie quickly picked up the scent and ran to source, hopping up on her hind legs to smother the source, hidden about four feet up the building's wall, giving her alert signal. It was so easy for Jackie but I was impressed!

Jackie effortlessly and quickly found all the buried scents, both in sand and in water. She struggled a bit with the interior search, quickly alerting the first source but then getting distracted by a dog poop bin and returning to the already found source placed just next to the smelly bin. We re-started the search and Jackie found the last hide.

Jackie made quick work of finding multiple buried hides in water, even with distractions

Pearls:

• It's time to preemptively join the National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW) in anticipation of trialing. Since Jackie has her Purebred Alternative Listing (PAL) lifetime number from AKC, we're solid for AKC events.

• Volunteering at scent work trials is a great way to learn many of the ins and outs of a trial environment in preparation ahead of one's first trial.

• Scent hides will never be placed on a start line cone at a trial.

• There are regulations about how close scent hides are placed together (or apart) at trials, so be sure to know the rules of each association before trialing to stack the cards in your favor.

• A quick game of tricks (think spin, nose touch, any quick game) with rewards to reset your dog if they are struggling at a trial is fair play, so use this tactic if needed. A quick refresher game with rewards is helpful during training if your dog is struggling and needs to reset.

Jackie is triumphant in front of the hide buried in sand

Jackie Learns To Recover a Treibball

Jackie's herding adventures continue as she masters the art of recovering her "sheep" when it strays into a corner. 

There is no verbal cue for this behavior, the cue becomes the situation itself when a treibball is stuck and needs to be recovered. But first the handler reinforces the dog for doing the correct behaviors.

Pearls:

• When teaching "Walk up!" it is okay to use multiple mats to mark where the dog would "Whoah!" Eventually, fade using the mat after Jackie understands that "Whoah!" means stop and stand still until cued "Walk up! again. 

• Continue to build value for "Go out!" with distance.

• Play "Come by!" and "Away!" to keep those cues fresh and consistent.

• Always reward the dog with the treibball between the dog and the handler, with the dog oriented toward the handler.

Clip of Jackie recovering her treibball from corners:

Hiking with Jackie and Meggie

Jackie, Meggie, and I went for a hike today at Sansom Park Falls. For me it was a challenging hike and the girls loved it too.

Video clip of Jackie hiking: https://youtube.com/shorts/n4qfA7f9D48?si=eeYIyrtH7wUzz2Dv

Jackie Nosework: Items and Interior Multiple Room Searches

Jackie is enjoying playing nosework.

Jackie did a great job searching two scent finds hidden in a circle of baby socks. She searched larger rooms for the first time and a multiple-room search that included a challenging bathroom. 

Jackie searched three different multi-room areas and after struggling a bit in the first two rooms did a great job quickly finding the scent sources in the final room search. 

Pearls:

• I am learning to recognize Jackie's alert body language and continuing to reinforce Jackie freezing in place and holding her nose directly on source.

• Once Jackie finds a source in a multiple-hide search, pay at source then gently pat Jackie twice on the hindquarter saying "Find more!" to cue Jackie to continue searching for additional hides. 

• Never pay twice if Jackie returns to the same source after being paid for finding it initially. If she struggles with returning to an already found hide during training, simply remove that hide from the search area and start the search again. 

Jackie at the startline in front of her search area of baby socks.

Basic Manners Week Three with Meggie

Meggie is brilliant in basic manners. 

Meggie clinching "Leave it!"

Pearls:

• This week we reinforced name recognition and played nose touch, where Meggie touches a target (my hand) when cued "Touch!"  

• Meggie did exceptionally with the challenging sit-stay while the handler circles around the dog.

• We advanced to playing phase three of "Leave it!" where Meggie ignores cookies tossed on the floor.

• We practiced greeting a friendly stranger by playing "Get it!" where Meggie eats cookies scattered on the floor while a stranger pets her.

• Meggie aced loose leash walking with distractions including people and puppies nearby.

• We learned phase one of emergency recall, using a special cue "Lucky! Lucky! Lucky!" and jackpot with a million-dollar treat once, and ONLY once, daily.

• We practiced "Place!" by reinforcing Meggie settling calmly on her mat.