Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Run Thrus

I took the baby and went to some run thrus in Vermont on Sunday. Wyatt did pretty well. He wanted to run; I actually struggled to keep up with him and cue him fast enough. This may be because he has had some time off and/or because I had cheese - his favorite treat. We are still not back to 100% though. He is still prefering contacts to running my course at times. I am not sure if I should go with him and finish the contact or keep running. My sense is that I should do the latter, then loop back and try again. We did have one really good run with no problems. It seems that I have to handle better and cue earlier and more right now also until this problem is corrected. If I "get lost" or even hestiate he will make a choice or "spin"...

2 comments:

Margaret said...

In clicker training, we are instructed to ignore undesired behavior while marking desired behavior with the click/treat. I know you aren't doing clicker, but think you will end up with a better performing dog if you ignore those undesired contacts for now. Wyatt seems to be a dog that shuts down on you if he gets too many "corrections", so this methodology, while taking a bit longer to achieve your ultimate goal, will be a win situation for the two of you.

Good luck!

Margaret

John Heffernan said...

Thanks! I agree...