Unison Spins and Nike Rolls Over

The dogs and I had fun clicker training new tricks in the last few days! Eli learned the "Spin" command, and then all three learned to do spins in unison. Then Nike learned to roll over!

Spins
To teach Eli to spin, I lured him the first few clicks so he could see what direction he should be moving in. I lured his head back over his shoulder with a treat, and then clicked when he followed its movement. After that, he kept turning farther and farther for the treat, until he has executing the spin with no problem!

Then, I had all the dogs line up in a front sit position, and gave them all the spin command and hand signal (making the hand signal much larger than normal). The first few times, one of the dogs would either not complete the spin, or veer off course, but after a few tries, the dogs had it! It's actually quite cute to watch them all spin together.

Roll Over
Nike learning to roll over was pure shaping. Nike LOVES the clicker, and eventually tried laying down, which he got C&T for. After he figured out that laying down was good, I upped the criteria, and clicked only when he leaned in the direction of the roll over. After he figured that out, criteria was upped again to C&Ting for laying down on his side. And so on and so on throughout the movement of the roll over. We spent maybe 20 minutes on the roll over, and now he's solid on it! He's such a smart boy.

Honor and Eli and I will be shaping a doggy handstand over the next few weeks. A few people on iDog and I are going to try and teach this. I love trick training!

Eli Can Sit!

Eli now sits! He caught on pretty quickly, and will now sit every time you ask him to.

I shaped the sit by clicking and treating every time his butt started to move toward the ground. I also shaped the sit in the presence of Honor and Nike, who showed him what the sit was supposed to look like. Eventually he realized that he got a jackpot when his butt touched the ground. Now, he runs around and sits for everyone, hoping that they will reward him.

Welcome Eli!

Thanks to Karen's generosity, my husband and I are proud to welcome RBIS GRCH PR AliAK's Ain't No Mount N Hi Enuf - "Eli" to our family! Eli is a wonderful dog, and has settled into the household quite nicely! He's very smart, and I can tell that he's going to excel at agility and rally!

Honor Made History...

So, I learned today that Honor is the FIRST Alaskan Klee Kai ever to achieve a Rally Novice title! How exciting and incredible is that!? I'm so honored to be a part of the AKK community, and it's an amazing feeling, knowing that Honor is paving the way for AKK's to do Rally!

Terry from AKKAOA has asked me to write an article about Honor's Rally experiences, I'm working on it right now. I hope it inspires more AKK owners to get out there and give Rally a try!

WE DID IT!

WE DID IT!!!!!

Today, Honor received qualifying scores on the last two legs needed for her APDT Rally Novice title! With scores of 187 and 191, she took 4th and 3rd place! WOOHOO!

Honor's such a good girl, I was so proud, I almost cried.

Ribbons(!):

Practice in Distracting Surroundings...

I needed more rabbit pellets, so I took Honor with me to Petsmart to get some extra rally practice in. It mostly consisted of me C&T for every time she looked up at me, and every time she was at heel. She's still very distracted by smells on the ground, and she gets so into sniffing that she forgets I'm with her. I'm still trying to find a way to overcome that, so right now C&T for attention is the route I'm taking. I need to practice Leslie McDevitt's technique again. Perhaps that will work.

On a light note, DH and I had our Christmas cards made yesterday. This is the picture on them:

Pictures From Today

Back to Basics

Trial is on Sunday, so Honor and I are back to hardcore rally practice.

As of late, she's been swinging off far to my left on the completion of the right finish. For those of who are unfamiliar, the right finish is executed from a "Front" position (dog facing handler). Upon the "Finish" cue, the dog walks around the handler, beginning the movement on the right and finishing on the left at heel position. It's the coming to heel position that we're having trouble with. Honor's been finishing almost a foot away from my left leg, and often crooked too.

So how to solve? Start from scratch a little, and try a different technique. Honor loves the "Touch" command, so I had her "Touch" my palm tonight when she comes into heel position. This works because the position of my hand sets her up for perfect heel position. I eventually phased out the extra "Touch" command as the session went on, and now she looks good!

I've also begun really focusing on Honor's attention during exercises. If there was one giant area of opportunity from our first trial, it was a mutual lack of focus. I was so wired that I wasn't communicating properly, and Honor was SO excited by the smells that she wasn't looking at me at all. I've upped the value of the treats used for focus work, and I'm hoping that she's learning that the best treats come after focusing well. Tomorrow we're going to Petsmart to practice in a more distracting environment.

It's so exciting, if Honor Q's on both runs this weekend, she'll officially be AliAK's Vereesa Windrunner, RL1!