With all the bragging about Beau and his sound progress

[jocoyn]

Well, this weekend he reminded me that he still has a lot of growing up to do......training problem and a team dog wound up in our area doing something else. Actually right in the scent pool for his training aid.

He looked up, saw Gambit (who is always an happy inviting little girl) and totally blew me off and ran over trying to play with her. Sigh.

Well.....he is definiitely a talented boy, but I guess 17 months does not an adult dog make....obviously we have a new thing to work on at training.

Not sure why, all of a sudden, he decided he wanted to run play with other dogs. Gambit's owner said it was ALL play (it was from my perspective too but I wanted to be sure!)

[onyx'girl]

Awww....maybe she was just irresistible! 17 months is still so young! Always good to know what to work on next.

[RowdyDogs]

In any animal training, I always repeat to myself...2 steps forward, 1 step back...there's always something!

Distractions are the hardest, I think. I was observing on a mission ready test recently and even that dog (who otherwise aced his test) struggled to stay focused when we stumbled across a prairie dog colony!

[onyx'girl]

I was just reading an article in the newest K9 Cop magazine and it was dedicated to training scenario's that showed weaknesses in real life experiences. The handler is never clued in to what would occur so they don't have that heads up decision making. They are carefully planned with certain goals in mind. Really interesting article(by Jerry Bradshaw, Tarheel K9)

[jocoyn]

LOL, I was just reading that last night myself. Our team does that (scenarios based on real life) and has the same viewpoint on certification, not as an end goal but a step along the way. And training scenarios based on real searches. Stray dogs in the search area are a reality. Due to his age I have not exposed him to too many dogs fence charging or lunging at their chains, but he will have to face that.

A neighbors yapper dog jumped him before I could intervene about 2 weeks ago. It was fast and no physical damage because we pulled him right off, but I think it did leave an impression on him. He is more interested in other dogs right now - but not in an agressive sort of way. I am not sure he even read it as an attack because he was doing play bows afterwards, but it seemed that way to us. There probably is some residual from that we need to work through...I can be "more interesting" to him though because he is not allowed to play with them and I have the ball.

Bradshaw has some good articles. I have not gotten a renew notice but I guess it came with an IPWDA membership? Not sure if my NAPWDA membership carries it or not but they send out their own magazine (which is more "news" related than training related)

[DFrost]

Originally Posted by jocoyn

Not sure why, all of a sudden, he decided he wanted to run play with other dogs. Gambit's owner said it was ALL play (it was from my perspective too but I wanted to be sure!)

I have an easy answer to that; Cause he can. ha ha ha. You know full well, regardless of how well we train, perfection is a goal, not a reality.

DFrost

[jocoyn]

This is all true. And I keep being reminded that 17 months is NOT a mature adult dog by any stretch. Any deployments will be on a case by case basis even though he is certified and maintaining reliable stats.