Training Days~Chalk

I love training dogs. I think my dogs love to train too. It's a process, each at a different place in their learning, but each brilliant! The time change to turn back the clocks last week and rainy, chilly pre-winter creeping in, make outdoor training harder. Not sure how it goes from getting dark a little early, to pitch-black at 5 PM EST and I feel like going to bed at 8 PM is reasonable. Fighting the dark winter hibernation instinct, training helps with that. 

Formal Training is probably only about 5-10% of my dog's lives, with hiking, etc and just being a dog important too. I do think my dogs enjoy training/working though, as my goal is always to build behavior and the bond. I am not a punishment based/aversive trainer. I think I would not enjoy my dogs as much, if that was our life together and training relationship. R+ training focuses on bringing out the best in each dog. The dogs might fail or make mistakes and that can build resiliency in learning, but I prefer not to train in a "set them up to fail" and correct them mindset. 

It is getting slippery and with snow a reality soon, working stock is not as much of an option as we head into winter. But, there are so many other things we can train during winter, that all carry over to whatever venue one of the dogs may focus on, as they mature. I try to focus on what each dog shows they love. Not all want to compete or train in everything, but they all still get some type of mental activity or fun. Just like humans as we age, learning new things keeps our brains young. My 12 year olds tomorrow-Ggrail and Ffire, still want to do "something". FFire would like ducks to keep for her birthday, Ggrail will be happy doing a little agility training. 

Meanwhile, there is a lot to do with my young'uns. Still feel like I am catching up with Covid shutting down so much, for so long and still with us. At least a year behind in where I thought I would be with the not quite puppies, but not quite primetime ready either.  Chalk aka Mr Handsome, is one of those.   

I am seeing glimmers of the future from Chalk, that are really exciting. Before he broke his elbow as a pup, he was a full of himself, sweet and drivey pup. So much time off to heal, we lost some of the things we would have done early for stock exposure and early sporty foundation. He was an easy patient, accepting being calm and confined, to heal. Now that I know his bones are good and that his elbow growth plate has healed well, we are catching up on all kinds of training things. I was probably overly-cautious and kept him in bubble wrap a bit too long, not having experience with a pup mysteriously breaking themselves, I worried it might happen again. I also worried about anything like agility that involved jumping, but am slowly testing out what he is comfortable doing. The orthopedic surgeon who put him back together seems to have done a very good job! 

While he was rehabbing, I was working with an older dog who has a hard time downing in motion, when asked to (regardless of what the sheep are doing). So I decided I wanted this pup to have a really good down. In his little leg cast, we did lots of walking around on a long line and asking for a down in motion, and away from my feet, often 20'+ away. His reward was to have a ball or frisbee thrown to him (place of reinforcement), so he got quite proficient at catching too. His retrieve and recall also benefitted from this work. I think a good retrieve and recall are the primary foundation to a good training relationship. If a dog won't come to you, or has interest in sharing their stuff, then a big piece of the working together puzzle is missing. If the dog is sensitive to space/you, that is a different thing to work on. Chalk is part freight train, so we don't have that issue.

Chalk has an incredible sense of self-control (off switch) that I love. Not a buzzy bone in his body, but he is also the least sight sensitive or reactive working dog I have raised-so almost too polite on stock. Operation bring out the Wild Child is under way. Last night, under floodlights as it was already pitch-dark out, I grabbed some cheese and a fluffrryy (my new word) tug toy and out the back door we went. I have been working on rollers in disc to ignite his prey drive-he loves his ball and frisbee! Last night I had no expectations, but just WOW! 

In less than a couple weeks of deciding I wanted him to understand he has the keys to the ignition, he was full on accelerator last night. I barely closed the door and had a piranha attached to the tug toy. We ran around and did some circle work/chasing-no cutting behind. A 4 jump grid very low, some wraps on wings, some plank work moving into a 2on2off target position, some 2x2's and last but not least, some One jump work. 

Chalk has never done One jump before, but is at the perfect age of going from bar on the ground to 20" in a short session. He got lots of cheese to build value for jumping over this simple piece of PVC. His rear end awareness is a beautiful thing to see, as he shifted his weight back and his Pony self lifted easily and cleanly for each rep. They do get tired quickly with this type of training. I give a very high ratio of reward to behavior/rep. At one point he dipped under the bar, smart boy said "this is easier". So, I lowered the bar a couple inches and we got one more good rep and called it a night. This all was in less than 15 minutes, outdoors under the floodlights. 

Some say to end a training session when a dog still wants more. What about the handler? A couple of the Tweens also got a short session and brilliant moments of their own-ViVi showed me that I have actually trained her weave poles a bit. Haha too funny, Thank god for forgiving latent learners, who show me what they know, as I try to keep notes on each dog in a training journal and keep them all sorted out. I will keep working on sporty foundation with Chalk, all positive training builds their confidence and problem solving capabilities. It will be fun to see how this carries over into other training with him.