I’m so proud of Cay. It’s fun to see her finally, gradually come out of her shell. I have been working on teaching her the “silent down”, in which I tell her to sit, then lure her into a down. Eventually, she learns to anticipate that the next move from the sit will be a down. When she starts going into the down on her own, I can add the word “Down”. The hardest thing for Cay is sitting still in class, even when she’s been out for a 30 minute run with the boys before class. Between the exercises, while the instructor is talking and the other dogs are sitting still, Cay continues to offer different behaviors, perpetually trying to please me and figure out what will make me part with the next cookie. I have created a “Down Monster”! Picture this: the instructor talking, a group of people with their dogs gathered around the instructor in a circle, everyone standing and sitting still, and Cay sitting, then lying down, then sitting again, then standing, continually throwing out new behaviors to get my attention. When doing this at my side fails, she gets out in front of me and tries again. I take this as an opportunity to shape her behavior to what I want. When she sits in perfect heel position, I reward with a treat. When she goes into a down from the sit, aligned in heel position, I treat. When she sits in heel position and looks at me with good attention, I treat. One thing I’m working in is getting her to sit in heel position and look at me for longer periods of time. She is very responsive (hungry?) and wants to please me (eat!). At times, I tell her “That’ll do!” and choose to just focus on the instructor. Cay always does well on the heeling exercises because she gets to move, and she’s a heeler, after all. Last night, the instructor borrowed Cay to do a heeling demo and she did great. 3 weeks ago she wouldn’t have gone that far away from me and worked for someone else. She is showing steady progress. Although class isn’t very tiring physically, Cay always sleeps all the way home in the car, worn out from her efforts. A tired dog is a good dog, I always say!      Â
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A note about Bandit, who will turn 5 years old on Thursday. He sure lives up to his name, as he has been a little thief since he was a small pup! On Saturday I got 3 spooky Halloween rubber chickens on sale at Petco and brought them home for the 3 dogs. Next thing I knew, Bandit had the 3 chickens collected in the middle of the living room, like a good herding dog, and was guarding them. The other two dogs were looking at me like, “Mom, he’s doing it again!”Â
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Posted on November 11th, 2008 Filed under: Cayenne/ Zulu, General, Kate's Family
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