Mat Work

Despite not working on it much, Porter is really excelling at his mat work. I think we've only have a handful of session but he's driving for the mat and downing pretty quickly. In our last session I worked on walking about 10-12 feet, including turning my back on him. That was a little bit of the stretch and he broke a few times, so I made it easier and quickly yo-yo'ed back to him so he can get his reward.

Next I decided to change things up again and moved the mat to the stairway landing. Porter had no problem figuring out what I wanted, but the tricky part for him was when I walked down the stairs. He was fine at first, but once I turned the corner into the living room he wanted to follow. I also practiced knocking on the door and quickly rewarding him, since he wanted to stand up.

It's hard working Porter when Indi is around. Not only is she a distraction but she gets in the way since she wants to work as well. She's not used to being excluded (only-dog syndrome) so if I put her outside or in another room she throws a fit, which is stressful for her and me and distracting for Porter.

This afternoon I worked them both on Nose Work for a few minutes. I placed them both outside while I set things up and worked on them staying seated while I opened the door and only released one of them. This part was very tricky and they need a lot of work. Another difficult part was once the dog working found the hide s/he didn't want to leave the room and go back outside but tried to keep searching. I ended up luring that dog outside and rewarding him/her so there wouldn't be hesitation in the future. Porter did well waiting his turn outside, but after 3 reps Indi started barking wanting her turn right then and there.

I finally heard Porter's big boy bark this evening. He's barked before plenty. Any time Indi has something he wants, he barks at her. But tonight when he saw the neighbor's wandering cat outside he had the deepest big dog bark I've heard out of him. He'll be a good deterrent to robbers. I'm more than miffed though at the cat. Porter has always been curious about cats, but in a friendly and playful way, but tonight's bark was different. I really don't want this to become a habit but with the cat entering our yard on a random but consistent basis it's going to be hard to fix. I'll need to remember to grab a bag of cookies if I suspect the cat is outside as well as really work his recalls.