Ollie's Training Diary U/D 17/02/09

[Karma]

That sounds like a lot of dogs - so well done to Ollie and you for getting anything very focussed!!! 

In our obendience class we had 1 new dog join this week (as 2 were also missing, it still meant there were only 4 dogs) but it really distracted the other dogs, so I can understand why Ollie would have found 2 new dogs right by him very distracting....

[Oliver21508]

UPDATE: Ollie was brill today. We were put on the side which has the most distractions behind us. He was really good. We did heelwork, and he would heel without me having my hand on his nose constantly, so my hand was by my side. I was very proud, and the trainer said it was very good.   We did sit stay, which he was fab at. Behaved beautifully for that, whilst the collie beside us was getting up and moving around, and she was only like half a metre away.  Also did down. As we are less experienced ones of the class, we only had to stand up straight beside our dogs whilst they were in the down, Ollie did it straight from the start. Did it for about a minute and a half. Very happy.  He was very good with dogs walking in front of him about half a metre, just watched them, didn't have to have a treat on his nose.  Then at the end we were told to kneel by our dogs and give them a stroke. Ollie straight away jumped at my face and started licking me. Cheeky boy. Gave him a couple of cuddles and then made him do down again.    He's doing really well there. So proud of my little boy.   

[Top Barks]

glad he's doing well but that many dogs in a class is to many IMO

[Oliver21508]

There were two new dogs here today too. It's ok as the trainer is very organised, all get our fair share of time and we all keep a set distance from other dogs to avoid fights and crashes.

[black taz]

use the distractions to your advantage and to help build your confidence.  If you can get him to stay when there are distractions you are doing really well IMO.  When you really need him to pay attention to you, you can bet there will be distractions.

Glad you are sticking with the training though, it can be tough if you think you are not progressing as quickly as you want.  Ollie sounds like he is doing really well (you too).

[Oliver21508]

UPDATE: Ollie was very good in class today. He did get a little distracted by a noisy beagle and a husky in front of us (which I think must be a bitch, he was so distracted by her). Did an off-lead down-stay which was fab. Loads of heelwork with sit in it and about-turns. When we did about-turn and sit, he sat too soon, so I had to creep him forward to my side. His little bum kept going up and down to get in the right position. He can now do heelwork without a treat on his nose so that's great. And he can relax a lot more now, between turns, he just lies down and has a little rest. The trainer was very impressed with him, and we are now in the experienced section of the class.