Blade is doing very nicely. He finished his first 6 weeks of obedience and did very well. The instructor is gone until January but I still work with him on my own. I think he is going to start up Rally when he gets back which sounds like a lot of fun. We are still doing agility and I'm amazed at how well he does at it; he is a natural. I have just started him at biking(slow and short sessions) but he will also be a natural at that. I also get together with a couple of other people and there dogs and we take them over to the dog park so all the dogs get alot of socialization with other people and dogs. I measured him the other day and he stands at around 24 inches and weighs about 55 pounds; he will be a big boy. I will get some current pictures of him and send them off sometime this month. The only problem I'm having with him is he wants to chase cars. Even as a baby he would try to go after them. I've always discouraged the behavior but with limited success. My agility instructor gave me a couple of suggestions that I will be trying. He is a great dog and I'm looking forward to many years with him.
Rally would be great for a young dog as is agility...I would think that Rally would help get him started toward obedience also.
I did google 'dogs chasing cars' and found this good link: http://aspcabehavior.org/articles/59/Dogs-Chasing-Cars-.aspx which you might find helpful. I don't tend to have the problem since we're so rural that 10 cars a day is a traffic event here and when the dogs aren't physically with me they are confined.
I'm doing some focus heeling with Gail so that when the time comes to compete she can pay attention to me better...it's fun but hard. I have a GREAT video from Mike Ellis on teaching the focus heel ~ it can be ordered through his website if you're interested. I tried to get some video of her this afternoon on the sheep but wasn't successful --- too much to video and train at the same time. She works very nicely ~ not too wild but still with drive and instinct.
Yes, I'd love to see pictures and I'm glad to hear that you're keeping him socialized ~ please keep in touch!
--------------- continued.....Thanks Sunny,
The info in the article is pretty much what my agility instructor told me. I guess the good thing is he has never had the opportunity to flat out chase a car as he is always on leash at this time except at the beach. Blade's recall is good but I know from experience with my other dog that once they reach that excited stage and start the run they aren't coming back no matter how much I call. I'll keep you posted on the progress of this.
I just wanted to let you know that I tried the exercise that was in the website you sent and that it is working wonderfully. In fact, after 4 days of working with him you wouldn't really know he had a problem with car chasing.
I think it worked so fast with him because, one, he is a puppy and didn't have alot of time to develop the habit; two,
because he never really got the enjoyment of chasing a car; and three, he is a puppy that picks up really fast what I'm asking of him.
I've never been too interested in clicker training but I have to say it works quite well. When ever I decide to use the clicker to train something to Blade he picks it up much quicker then when I don't use it. It is a handy little device.
Thanks again for website.
That's good news - I'd continue to reinforce the training though. Regarding the clicker -- I don't actually use a 'clicker' but I do use marker words which is the same concept -- a 'Yes!' when the dog is correct, an 'un, uh' (or however that's spelled) when he's wrong. On another topic, I found a 4 week rally class to take Gail to which starts this Wednesday which will be more for socialization than anything else. I can't maintain any kind of a focus heel in a group class because they tend to have heeling for so long and she's just not mature enough but rally shouldn't degrade my training. I'll let you know how it goes.
