Okay, you haven't lived until your 19 month old Cardigan Welsh Corgi (aka Russ) breaks a long sit/stay and starts humping his neighbor. His immediate neighbor was 10 month old lab who is being trained to be a service dog. Oh my goodness, I just wanted to scoop him up and slink out. But, of course, Sharon wouldn't even hear of me slinking off, so I stayed and made a promise to myself that I was going to find a way to improve his performance when distracted.
So I started working with heightened distractions, but then while reading Control Unleashed, I found a reference to a Relaxation Protocol by Dr. Karen Overall. I started working the protocol 3 days ago, and have already seen progress. Now this protocol isn't designed to teach a formal stay or down--just for the dog to teach itself how to relax with increasing stimulation. So they can move, shift, etc. just not get up, bark and the like.
Today I am happy to report that Russ only popped up once when I jogged right for 10 seconds. After he tried to "kill" one of his stuffed animals, I calmly said--"oops try again." He downed, I jogged right for 10 seconds and then returned. I marked his great behavior with a "Yes" and rewarded him with a treat. We finished the Day 3 tasks without him breaking until released.
Whoooo Hoooo.... I couldn't be happier!
P.S. I am working the same with Shaker, but will wait to report on his progress later.
2 comments:
Don't you just LOVE that book??? I wonder where it's been all my life. ;-P
I trully believe that Syd was progressing slowly before Control Unleashed, but she has taken leaps and bounds (with occasional setbacks) using Leslie's techniques. This weekend Syd had her first agility trials, and she's excited for me to post about it on her blog. Hopefully by tomorrow!
Oh I can't wait to hear about her agility trial.
I do love that book. I can't believe that I finally found a book that utilizes positive principles and doesn't promote stressing the dog out! I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have been told--just get a prong collar!
Post a Comment