Barking at Nothing

Porter finally took his first walk down to the school to pick my daughter up with me. It's a very short walk, but when he first came home it was too far for him. Since timing is critical and I didn't have the luxury of stopping every inch if Porter pulled I put on his new Freedom Harness. Normally he doesn't pull, but with all those kids around it was a much higher probability.

Since Porter did so well running up and down the banks at Fiesta Island I also decided to take him "the sneaky way" as my daughter calls it. There's a short cut through some trees and up a dirt hill where you can enter the school parking lot from the side instead of walking all the way around to the front entrance of the lot. It cuts off maybe 200 yards. Porter had no issues clambering up the bank, walking on a ventilation grate, and navigating a 10 inch wide concrete retaining wall. Don't worry, there's a classroom wall on one side and bushes on the other 6 inches down. So even if he slipped he was in no danger.

Porter met a few toddlers and did great. He was much calmer than I thought and even rested at my feet while we waited for my daughter.



Agility class is going great.

Despite not working on mat work yet, Porter is a champ! Last week we just dropped 10 treats or so when they touched the mat and repeated this 2-3 times. This week we started wit the same and Porter began offering a down. I raised the criteria and held out until he downed each time. When I called him off the mat I decided to stay where I was which was about 5-8 feet away and Porter instantly ran back to the mat and downed. We repeated this three times and each time he dove for the mat without any cue from me and still did amazing when I faced away from the mat.

I think what has helped him with this distance work and drive for the mat is his crate upstairs. Each time I crate him I throw cookies inside once he goes in. So now when I walk up the stairs he runs up first and into his crate to wait for me. He must have generalized this behavior to the mat. Yay!!!

We also have been working on hand targets and target plates. I can hold my hand almost anywhere (right, left, behind him, a foot about his head) and he will seek out my hand. He'll follow it as well if I move it away from him until he touches it, which is very helpful for rally.

Our flatwork needs work, on the right side at least. I've made him very one sided since I've done most of our work with him in heel position (to get ready for rally). I knew I needed to even him out but just haven't got around to it. Luckily he's doing a little better on the right now and his inside circles on both sides are slowly coming along.

The one thing that I really need to work on is his play drive. He'll play at home, even in the back yard but in class he's not playing anymore. He did in puppy kindergarten at first, but now in agility his nose hits the ground and he's foraging for food when it's play time. Indi is only food driven and will not work for toys so I was hoping Porter would be more balanced, but I think I'd screwing it up. I need to get on it and build that drive!!