Retail Therapy and Training

One detail I left out of my post on yesterday's adventures: Since I was a bit disappointed in our performances in the show ring, I stopped by the Woodburn Company Stores for some "retail therapy". When we named "Ecko" it never occured to me that there was a line of clothing called "Ecko Unlimited". Ironically, a new Ecko Unlimited company store just opened at the Woodburn Outlets this Friday! The clothing line is kinda of "hip hop", but I managed to find a couple of tee-shirts for Jan and I with the name "Ecko" on them.

I spent about five minutes today training each of the girls.

Stoker already knows to self-stack (ala the conformation ring) when I position myself and hold my hand a certain way. Today, we worked on having her wag her tail when she stacked. We didn't worry about the position of her feet at all, just clicked and treated about 30 or so times each time she wagged her tail. This was easy in the spare bedroom without an audience. I'll work on it a couple more times in quiet and familiar environments and then try taking it on the road to strange and slightly stressful places.

Ecko was pleasantly surprised to find that her session consisted of clicking and treating for nothing at all - or so she thought. I was actually marking each time I got her to stand instead of sitting. I haven't really taught her many position cues yet but, like most puppies, she defaults to sitting when I am holding a treat in my hand as her weight naturally shifts to her rear when she looks up at the treat. A couple more days of this and I think she will understand that "stand" is a rewardable position and then I will put it on cue.

Chili got to work on the Utility scent articles. I think this will be the most difficult exercise to teach her in Utility. Chili HATES being wrong and works very hard to make me happy. She puts a lot of pressure on herself because of that, and exercises where she has to make a decision on her own can be stressful. We worked with just the leather articles (little leather dumbbells) today. She would run out and find the correct one (I was putting my scent on it AND baiting it with a little bit of roast beef) every time. The problem arises in that she then second guesses herself about what article I want her to actually bring back. She chose the correct one about 50% of the time. The times she chose incorrectly, I just helped her find the correct one and clicked and treated when she brought it to me. When we've dabbled at articles in the past, she has shown signs of stress almost immediately and today she stayed upbeat and happy the whole session. We'll keep making baby steps and hopefully she will figure the game out...