Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Hardy earns his second red bandanna with Brent this time !
Hardy earns his second red bandanna with Brent this time !
Brent and Hardy are taking my Introduction to Levels class but since Brent has meetings two Wednesdays a month for a professional organization for which he is the President-elect, this evening was the first class they could attend. They passed Level 1 first thing and so did another team (congratulations, Barb and Carl!)
We discovered this summer that all the things Laurel knows doesnt translate when Brent is working with her because although he came to all the classes, he didnt do any training with her. Of course, many of the people on the service dog lists discouraged us from letting Laurel have relationships with other people at all. Instead, they thought I should tether her to me and be the only person to interact with her in any way. We do try to learn from our mistakes so Brent will work with Hardy too.
Brent and Hardy worked on loose leash walking with different speeds, sits, downs, stands, and using a toy as motivation. Brent also found that he had to work with Hardy not responding when I was talking to other dogs or asking them to do something. We were doing the Level 1 come game played between two people. Hardy was really sure he should come when I called the other dog.
Prior to the start of my class, I worked with Hardy on sitting straight next to me in heel position and doing sit and down stays while I went all the way around him. Hardys pretty sure that he should always be facing me when he is on a stay and of course, I have to go all the way around him with my chair. With doing all the stays on tether, I never did that before. But hes a smart little guy and when he gets the idea what I want, he figures it out pretty quickly.
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