Indigo and I have a great time training for agility. She gets a huge rush from running a courses and you can tell that it's naturally rewarding for her. Rally obedience has been a lot of fun to train and has introduced new skills we had to fine tune such as backing up and pivoting left, both while in heel position. I really like the control you need to master in this sport and it's great for working on Indi's focus and self control. A new sport that Indi has really taken a shine to is K9 Nose Work (this is a kind of scent detection work).
When the new pup comes home he will be trained for these sports as well, with agility being my primary focus. In all my reading about FCRs and their owners I keep seeing the same theme. The owners are just amazed at the sheer joy they see in their dogs when they are out retrieving in the field and doing the work they were bred for. This has led me to look into field training and what is involved. I know that most people use forced retrieves and shock collars for this kind of training, but that is not my style. I'm not interesting in doing that kind of work with my dog and luckily it seems there are some people out there training for field work using positive methods. There's not many, but they are out there and some have even written books on the subject.
My goal over the next few months is to learn more about field trials so I understand the rules and what is required of the dogs and to read about how to use the clicker or other positive method to teach these skills. I'm not sure if this sport is for me, but it would be nice to do something so natural for my dog and to do it in a dog friendly way.
Oh, yes, and we might dabble in dock diving as well. And I imagine a FCR would be great at therapy work. How many hours are in a day again??
1 comment:
There really aren't enough hours in the day for all the things you want to do with your FCR-to-come! I bet he'll enjoy whatever you do, though.
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