Training Challenge Week 4 Update

I’m going to post a bit early because this week is going to get crazy with the holiday weekend and the boarding kennel starting this afternoon.  I was determined to do better at the training challenge this week.  So, I started off on Monday.  Dare and ran to town first thing Monday morning to return the posthole digger that we’d rented.  I decided to go to a park that we’ve never been to before.  When they first built and opened this park it was supposed to be a kind of more exclusive little park (catering to a new subdivision).  Well, since then the poor little park has just gone down hill.  I don’t even know if the waterfall type decoration thing in the front even still runs now.  Anyway….we went there.

It was early, but we didn’t need any Kichler lighting to see where we were going. Because it was early, the only people we saw were some maintenance guys checking on one of the buildings.  Probably for the best though, since this park, (like all the rest in our county), say that dogs aren’t allowed.  Even on leash!  Isn’t that crazy?  There are a couple of parks that we’ve talked to the mayors about and gotten permission to use while training, and the rest we just kind of watch and then claim ignorance if there’s anyone that complains.  Most of the time, people are really glad to see dogs out training. 

Sorry, again I seem to be straying from my point.  LOL  Dare did just fine working at this park.  We did some obedience.  A little heelwork, a few recalls, and then I wanted to do some stays.  She did well, though other than it being a new place, there weren’t really any big distractions to deal with.   I’ve been working at increasing her stay duration.  I want the 1 minute sit for her Novice Obedience to be a no brainer for her.  So, it was a good outing for us both.  I would have liked to have seen more people, but I don’t know that this park is ever busy really.

Yesterday, we met with our friend and trained with her at the park we have trained at before.  We couldn’t have asked for more distractions if had tried. LOL There were groups of kids everywhere.  Apparently, they were organized into different sections and they all seemed to be practicing different things for the 4th of July celebrations this weekend.  So, the normal part of the park was a zoo of activity.  We actually didn’t have room to set up anything, so we crossed over to the other side of the park where the baseball diamond and the small skate park is.  That worked well.  We still had all the noise and commotion around us, but a bit more space.  We had several groups of kids stop by to see what we were up to and want to visit with the dogs.  The maintenance people were out on our side mowing the lawns and restriping the ball field, so we still had lots of things to serve as distractions.  Again, everyone did fine.  We did some beginning work on “marking” for the glove exercise in, some retrieval of the dumbell over a jump, a little heeling, and some one jump work for agility thrown in for good measure.  LOL  I did get some video of the one jump work, I’ll post on Dare’s blog.  (I know, I know, I promised to post last week on her blog and I never got around to it).  I’ll try to do better this time around. 

Here’s what I’ve noticed about the training challenge this month.  I think that I need to get comfortable training in new places even more so than the dogs do.  In fact sometimes, I think my nerves about going somewhere new are worse than the dog’s distractions at being in a new place.  I find myself in a comfortable rut and I seem to like it there.  LOL  It’s a great challenge to get packed into the car and then as Ricky pointed out, to go somewhere, set everything up and train for a short while only to pack up and go back home.  I have noticed benefits to doing this challenge though.  I think not only are the dogs better in new places, but I am not feeling as apprehensive about going new places.  Note that I said, “as apprehensive”.  I still get really nervous about setting up in new places and stuff.  But I think it’s getting better.  I am going to keep trying to make it a goal to get out and about with the dogs each week, even though the challenge is over for the month.

Thanks to Ricky for keeping us company on this training challenge and for encouraging us to keep going!