I'm working from home again today and after practicing my departmental presentation about 5 times in a row, i decided that i needed a break. What is more perfect than a 10-15 minute indoor training session with lexx?
I cut up treats, broke out his tug, put on a collar and grabbed a leash.
Starting with focus exercises. Lexx has very on and off days with his focus. Looking me straight in the eyes seems to bother him... or make him uncomfortable when he has to do it for long periods of time. Lots of treats don't really seem to help, but at least he's not moving DOWN hill in this respect.
Worked on some heeling, very difficult inside as I only have ONE carpeted room and i means i have to continuously turn in circles. After a little bit of frustration from the wandering, not engaged dog face following me around, he finally clicked in and started to focus. I've decided that im not happy with his heeling position and that he's a bit too far back. Since he backs into his sits a bit anyways, the fact that he's STARTING too far back is definitely NOT helping matters. I worked on really bringing him up farther beside me. He doesn't seem to like this position, but we're working on it.
Sits looked maybe a bit better today? he's definitely getting MORE good sits over time and i actually caught him doing a tuck sit today! wow! a TUCK sit! who knew that was even possible...Ive learned that the more energy and speed that i heel with, the better and straighter his sits seem to be. One thing I will say is that he now SITS everytime i stop while heeling. These sits are by no means straight, or anywhere close to perfect everytime.. but atleast he doesn't just stop and STARE at me, like..what? we've stopped.. so?
His fronts aren't as straight as i'd like either. I've been over exaggerating the treats/hand motion combo to get him to come in close and straight and i REFUSE to acknowledge the front if its even a little bit crooked, much to lexx's dismay.
My biggest concern currently is that lexx doesn't seem to KNOW to correct himself. If his sit isn't straight, i have to lure him into a straight sit before i treat him, he won't do it himself.
I'm visiting the new training facility tonight, no longer sick and i'm QUITE excited about it. I'm hoping that Kyle might even join me, not that he'd take lexx, but it would be nice to have the company. I have NO money to enroll lexx into classes right now. My horse has been suffuring some medical issues, lexx has had a lot of vet bills... and paired with christmas i'm flat out broke. However, i'm SO frustrated with his issues and i'm honestly not having as much fun training lately as i feel like we're not improving as much as i'd like... so... onto the credit card the classes go. I'll figure SOMETHING out.. right?
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YAY!!! Lexx is getting the sits!!! Don't worry too much about the self-correcting, i find that it takes a gazillion repetitions before they start to get the "oh, i'm supposed to correct myself now that Mom says it's not good enough". It took a while for Dante to self-correct, and even now he'll sometimes just half-correct or quarter-correct himself instead of going all the way ... i'm thinking it's not fully sunk in yet, but the more positive feedback and accolades he gets when he even does a bit of self-correcting, the more he feels good about doing it!
Tell us all about the new training facility when you get a chance!!! :)
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