Introducing the clicker

Hi Kaye,

That will be great fun..a session at home with Julie on Thursday and then
with you on Friday.

Yesterday was a big sleep day for both of us. We had a few flattish training
sessions and a few nice walks but we were both spent. However, the evening
brought a lot of fun!

Sit-Stand-Lie down have all been captured many times and now I'm luring them
a bit as well. This might well be a crazy sequence. Slower for sure. He is
showing some paw action when he is starting to lie down so I'm thinking of
charging the clicker. I think it would be much easier to get 'on the click'.
I've also captured a bit of 'targeting' without voice, on my hand moving him
around me. The clicker would be the just the shot for that as well.

Fido obviously has strong prey drive. His head is on the ground a lot of the
time and his all time favourite game is pulling and head shake killing. I am
using it quite a bit to distract him from destroying the house. I often
lose his attention to the smells. Even in lying down he sometimes catches a
smell and finds it of higher value/interest than the food reward.

I think I've cracked the 'give it' this morning. We play pull and kill;
heavy duty plastic bags are the favourite. I take the bag up close to his
head raise it up so it puts him out of balance, he has to reach, and then
just wait til he drops it. Normally he will take a bit of liver this way
because he has momentarily lost interest and then we play again straight
away. The play is much higher value than the liver. Previously I've waited
till he accidentally dropped it, said 'give it' and then offer food. He
doesn't want food, he wants that pesky plastic bag!

He and Pep are playing a lot with the ball and with a rope pull toy. I'm
keeping the plastic bag for him and me and putting it and the tennis ball
away so they are very special.

The two dogs slept on each others beds for the whole night last night. Fido
was first on Pep's and Pep came in and dumped herself down on Fido's very
happily. Just before bed we've been having big plays- tennis ball rugby.
Mostly Pep's got the ball, but we all know who's got the talent. They are
settling beautifully despite the high excitement.

Yesterday Fido was understandably very tired until about 5.30. He showed low
enthusiasm for our sessions. He has Pep and a lot of interesting things
happening. I am thinking I might start with building a confinement system. I
also need it so I can go off and leave him. I don't think that will actually
be a problem, because I can put them in a run together. A little play pen
for time out might be handy. Julie has put me onto Dogtainers so I'll grab a
wire crate too and put his bed in it in the pen. A bit of confinement might
just make Fido a bit more pleased to see me on these low energy days. It
might make resting more efficient too.

Ian Dunbar's  long term confinement regime for three or four months and then
introducing the run of the house one room at a time (once they've have no
accidents for a month they get another room etc) seems unnecessary; possibly
because I am missing something? I also remember you saying I should not take
him in the paddock 'off lead' for six months in order to instill good basics.
Lets talk about that!

I've been grooming quite a bit and handling his tail feathers so I can have
a go at trimming the 'poo trail'.


I guess you sent me your Building Blocks book to scare me half to death. You
are describing possibilities way beyond my current imagination. I can see
how they get done. Fido and I will need a few very productive light years of
good work. Very exciting and very daunting!

Cheers,

Richard