It's gonna be a long road

It's a lovely fall day, and perfect for training outside.  I worked with Ani on the following:
Wobble board
2 jump grid
Ladder
2x2 weaves
The reason I say it's gonna be a long road is because Ani is just not interested in the wobble board at all.  She is still leery of the clicker, even though we have been doing a lot of work with it, so whenever I click for anything associated with the wobble board she winces and retreats.  I tried throwing lots of yummy treats down in the middle of the board so she had to at least put one foot down on it, and that's about all I got.  This is gonna take awhile.
We did much better on the jump grid, although at first I had my doubts.  She still wants to herd them instead of going through/over them.  But with a little bit of playing and running with her, and tugging with a favorite toy I was able to get her more excited about it.  I was happy with that work.
She has never seen the pvc ladder before, so I introduced it.  Very leery at first, but with some luring and lots and lots of treating I got her to do a few reps in both directions.  The progress was pretty quick.
Then we moved on to the 2x2's.  Didn't work with it too much because she was not very enthusiastic.  I'm going to try and get Susan Garrett's DVD for some training suggestions.  It has been almost 2 years since I trained Libby on them, and maybe I've forgotten something!
Ended the training session with a vigorous game of fetch with Libby, which meant that Ani ran around the yard herding her.  They are both very tired, content girlies now!

At long last!!

It's a shame that I am such a procrastinator, because Ani is one talented little girl!  She is fast and in amazing control of her body.  I love to watch her run with Libby, our GR.  I occasionally take out the clicker and work with her, but for the most part her training has been idle since my last post.  We bred her in early spring and she had 5 very ugly puppies which ended up blossoming into very cute babies!  Kim kept a tri girl and named her Rumor.  She looks just like Ani, only in black.
So back to Ani's training... today I had a half hour private lesson with Bonnie Henderson and it was wonderful!!  I really enjoyed working with her, and am looking forward to doing more of it.  Today we discussed the 3 main things that I will be working on:
1.  Contacts (2 on 2 off)
2.  Jump Grids
3.  Weave poles (2x2's)
Then we went to work.  We started with a 2 jump grid, set about 4 feet apart.  The first bar was set at 4" and the second at 8".  Ani had no clue what she was supposed to do with them, and instead of jumping them she actually wanted to herd them!  It was very amusing to watch. 
The second thing we worked on was beginner contact work with a board.  I clicked when she showed any interest in it, and progressed to clicking when she touched any part of herself on it.  By the end she was standing on it and getting lots of big rewards, and this was after only a few minutes!
Bonnie encouraged me to work with Ani on beginner heel work - finding heel position.  Also, recalls.  Other than her name she really hasn't been taught to come on any particular command.  I need to look into Leslie Nelson's Really Reliable Recall method again.  And lastly, I need to teach her a release word now, like 'OK'.
We will revisit in another month and see how we have progressed.
I worked with Ani on some heel work just now.  It is going to take some time to teach her to sit at my side, facing the same direction!  I am encouraged though.  She seems to enjoy the attention while we are working.

Mat work

Progress with Ani has been slow.  Partly my fault for not being consistent in my training schedule and partly because Ani seems to be a bit of a slow learner.  She is such a social butterfly and would much rather meet new friends (canine or human) and be doing something fun.  I guess that means I have to make our training sessions more fun!  This morning I finally watched some of the "Control Unleashed" Game Demo DVD's by Leslie McDevitt, that I borrowed from the TMAC library recently.  I absolutely love the books, and the DVD's definitely help to visualize the exercises better.  I had been working on the "Mat" exercise a few weeks ago, prior to watching the DVD, and our progress was very slow.  Ani just wasn't getting it.  But after watching the video we had a wonderful training session!  I kept it short and fun, and she offered some wonderful behaviors.  I could even see her brain actually working.  We concluded our training session before she got bored.  Will try for another short session later and see if she retained anything :)

Day 2

Ani is definitely learning how to learn, and I am really excited about that!  Today we did a short session with a few reps of 'down', some nose touches and then introduced eye contact.  She gives me her 'down' and keeps looking at my hands, but I wait until she looks up and makes eye contact with me; then click and treat.  She is a happy, eager student so far. 

We leave for Maine today, so our next session will be up there.  I am going to leave Libby home with Rick so that I have some real one-on-one with Ani for a few days.

Got to Maine pretty late tonight because of bad weather and tough driving conditions.  Couldn't even get the car up the driveway, despite multiple try's.  The surf is really pounding and I'd love to go down and see it, but the driveway and road are just too slippery.  Since I am here all alone with Ani I don't want to chance falling and getting injured when there is nobody else here!  So instead I did a short training session with Ani.  I introduced a mat, and clicked any time she came close to touching it or looking its way.  She eventually got to the point where she was sort of jumping and sitting on it.  She really is a fun girlie.  We also played tug with the towel I was using to dry her off after going outside.  Its something we taught her a long time ago and she things it is great fun.  Now she is pooped.  I guess it is bed time!

Off to a good start

Had another 5 minute training session with Ani this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to see that she remembers what 'down' is!  Until now I don't think she has had a clue what learning was about, but I can see the wheels turning in her little head.  That's very encouraging.  I introduced nose touches which she seemed to catch on to pretty quickly.  I'm actually getting excited about this!

Day 1

Before now Ani only knew 2 things; "sit" and "off".  I taught her to sit in November and she is expected to do so for her breakfast and dinner.  She must sit until I release her with the word "free".  Although she seems to understand that she has to sit, she really doesn't get the whole release word thing.  We will work on that.  Today I taught her how to down.  She actually learned it pretty fast!

My goals for Ani are small, at least to start.  I would like to improve our working relationship.  She is a sweet puppy, but sometimes seems more bonded to the cats and our Golden Retriever Libby.  That will need to change if we are to work together.  The plan is for short clicker training sessions to learn the basics (sit, down, stay, hand touches, etc.), to actually teach her what learning is all about, and to enjoy working with me..  I look forward to this journey and hope I didn't wait too long to start it!!