Coba training!
Aug. 17th, 2011 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
summer_jackelLong rambling dog-geekery; feel free to skip over if this isn't your thing.
I just made the homeliest jump ever: a PVC pipe duct taped between two old plastic flowerpot stanchions. It took me about a minute to make it and about three to teach Coba to jump it. He definitely associated the "jump" command with what he's supposed to do; this isn't the first time he's been introduced to the concept, but it's the first time I've done it in awhile, and his best performance so far. He does really well when he is positioned squarely on one side and I am squarely on the other, less so when either of us start more than a few feet away from the jump or on a diagonal to it. These will come with time; I kept the session short and fun. The jump is also lower than it will be in the ring, but height can come later.
What this is all for, of course, other than it just being fun to train one's housefox to do entertaining things as well as being good diversion for an active little mind, is that I am starting to look seriously at what's needed for Open level obedience competition. It seems likely, knock on wood, that Coba earns his Novice title of Companion Dog either this month or next, and it would be pretty cool if he was ready to enter Open classes next summer. Ergo, train the dog now.
We have a way to go.
The article above summarizes that "Open Class involves 7 exercises: Heel Free and a Figure 8 (off leash), a Drop on Recall, Retrieve on Flat, Retrieve over High Jump, Broad Jump, and Group Exercises: a 3 minute sit stay and a 5 minutes down stay with the handler out of sight of the dog." Coba's heel free/figure 8 is getting pretty snappy, to the point where I'm hoping that, at least if he's in the mood, we are going to look pretty good in our upcoming Novice appearances. His Drop on Recall is good enough for the ring now, and his stays with me out of sight are coming along well enough. That's proving easier to train than I thought (of course I introduced it last winter). This leaves the jumps and retrieves.
Jumping should be easy enough to train; he already has a good attitude about it, and it's only a matter of time and repetition to build confidence. If his jumping gets as snappy as his recalls are now, he is going to be just adorable.
Which leaves us with the retrieve, Coba's least favorite idea in the world. This is a dog who doesn't even want to pick up (any) toy and bring it to me while enthusiastically playing. I've gotten him to the point where he will hold a plastic dumbbell toy when I put it in his mouth, change positions (sit to down to stand and back) and perform short recalls without dropping it, though his opinion of the exercise is eloquent. I try to use the best rewards for this, things like tastes of canned food he only gets for this exercise, but I haven't seen his 'tude improve yet. There's no hint that he will willingly take the object into his mouth, and I that's our biggest hurdle: convincing Coba to pick up that distasteful foreign object---the horror!
I am thinking of training with something much lighter, like a piece of fabric or leather, to begin with. Perhaps I'll use a glove, as the directed fetching of gloves comes up in Utility, and he might find them less objectionable than a plastic dummy. His moving stands are quite good, btw, as are many of his non-verbal commands, and I honestly think that the most difficult thing I will have to teach Coba in terms of obedience competition may be the one I'm starting to work on right now.
As soon as he'll pick up something, anything, on command, the rest is time and fine-tuning. Given Coba's reluctance and sensitivity, it may take awhile, but with consistency, short, positive sessions and the nastiest dog food I can find (from my POV, anyway) we should eventually get it.
...I hope.
I just made the homeliest jump ever: a PVC pipe duct taped between two old plastic flowerpot stanchions. It took me about a minute to make it and about three to teach Coba to jump it. He definitely associated the "jump" command with what he's supposed to do; this isn't the first time he's been introduced to the concept, but it's the first time I've done it in awhile, and his best performance so far. He does really well when he is positioned squarely on one side and I am squarely on the other, less so when either of us start more than a few feet away from the jump or on a diagonal to it. These will come with time; I kept the session short and fun. The jump is also lower than it will be in the ring, but height can come later.
What this is all for, of course, other than it just being fun to train one's housefox to do entertaining things as well as being good diversion for an active little mind, is that I am starting to look seriously at what's needed for Open level obedience competition. It seems likely, knock on wood, that Coba earns his Novice title of Companion Dog either this month or next, and it would be pretty cool if he was ready to enter Open classes next summer. Ergo, train the dog now.
We have a way to go.
The article above summarizes that "Open Class involves 7 exercises: Heel Free and a Figure 8 (off leash), a Drop on Recall, Retrieve on Flat, Retrieve over High Jump, Broad Jump, and Group Exercises: a 3 minute sit stay and a 5 minutes down stay with the handler out of sight of the dog." Coba's heel free/figure 8 is getting pretty snappy, to the point where I'm hoping that, at least if he's in the mood, we are going to look pretty good in our upcoming Novice appearances. His Drop on Recall is good enough for the ring now, and his stays with me out of sight are coming along well enough. That's proving easier to train than I thought (of course I introduced it last winter). This leaves the jumps and retrieves.
Jumping should be easy enough to train; he already has a good attitude about it, and it's only a matter of time and repetition to build confidence. If his jumping gets as snappy as his recalls are now, he is going to be just adorable.
Which leaves us with the retrieve, Coba's least favorite idea in the world. This is a dog who doesn't even want to pick up (any) toy and bring it to me while enthusiastically playing. I've gotten him to the point where he will hold a plastic dumbbell toy when I put it in his mouth, change positions (sit to down to stand and back) and perform short recalls without dropping it, though his opinion of the exercise is eloquent. I try to use the best rewards for this, things like tastes of canned food he only gets for this exercise, but I haven't seen his 'tude improve yet. There's no hint that he will willingly take the object into his mouth, and I that's our biggest hurdle: convincing Coba to pick up that distasteful foreign object---the horror!
I am thinking of training with something much lighter, like a piece of fabric or leather, to begin with. Perhaps I'll use a glove, as the directed fetching of gloves comes up in Utility, and he might find them less objectionable than a plastic dummy. His moving stands are quite good, btw, as are many of his non-verbal commands, and I honestly think that the most difficult thing I will have to teach Coba in terms of obedience competition may be the one I'm starting to work on right now.
As soon as he'll pick up something, anything, on command, the rest is time and fine-tuning. Given Coba's reluctance and sensitivity, it may take awhile, but with consistency, short, positive sessions and the nastiest dog food I can find (from my POV, anyway) we should eventually get it.
...I hope.
