Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Leslie McDevitt dvd arrived!

Her new DVD arrived!!!  I love her book and am looking forward to the dvd of game demo's. It's always interesting to watch someone work through the babysteps and trouble shoot. They had free delivery too...boy that saves a bundle. www.cleanrun.com
I'm just about to settle in with some icecream and the dvd :P
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AND....we came up with a few more DOOR GAMES :) 

I've got to say that my goal is to incorporate more distance like Cynthia has but for now, I'm really pleased how much fun we're having with the reorienting and door games.   

Distance work always comes easily after criteria is clearly established.  I already have Patricia McConnell's door games under my belt where they sit and I'll release one at a time, from "Feeling Outnumbered". I use that game as well, their release word is "name of dog", then "go" but this reorienting is really valuable as well.

I like that it's a game and they whip their body around to face you. You'll see in the video how Keegan tweaks things to make it his own. I wasn't expecting him to reorient but he did and he downed! 'Go" normally means just move away from me and he'll just run to the door and wait for me. I'll have to change the word for this new twist behaviour to race away then turn and down towards me....all these words to keep track of and be consistent with! I love giving them the freedom to come up with twists that I can capture and shape into cues think would be fun to add to our ever growing repertoire.

It sort of reminds me of agility 'table" work, where they have to down on a table until they're released.



Right now my criteria is to build value for this game...which is when we walk through doors...going into or to the outside (freedom) to reorient to me first instead of racing out the door and piling on top of eachother or racing away:

1- no door dashing
2- no jumping on me
3- reorienting to me when we're going through or I'm coming in, as long as there's no motion forward I'll take a stand but sit or down preferred.

I'll raise criteria this weekend to:

1- either a sit or down before they are rewarded, without prompting
2-then I'll work on more space in front of the door by getting them to target to mats I'll place a few feet before the door. 

Starting distance work is always easier if they have some place to target...hence...Leslie McDevit's Mat work!

Adding distractions will come once I get them targeted to their own mats positioned in front of the door.

I'll video that too it'll be interesting to see the progression and whether I can get all the way up to closing the door then opening it to find them sitting patiently on their own mats. I love the idea of video'n them while I'm outside so I can see what happens behind the scenes when I'm not in the same room :)

I like using the mats with the bumpers around them. That way when I throw food or kongs for them to chill out with, everything stays on the mat.

Reorienting theme with a twist!  I really really find that handy.

4 comments:

happyd said...

very coool katherine!!

i'm sorry we couldn't meet up but hopefully next time, duke and i can have a hike by the beach with george, daisy and keegan :)

... wow i want to start playing door games!

Kate and Rob said...

we'll be here for a long time... so no rush!

Visiting hometowns is always a balancing act.

Since I'm taking the next year off of having fosters to work with, it's really brought to light all the work we need to do :)

I really really like the reorienting work. I love the dvd so far as she starts from scratch with pretty much every dog. I love the book as well, but the secret shortcuts come through in her dvd.

Cynthia said...

I love reorienting, especially for "scanner dogs" like mine. I just stand outside the door until they turn, then we go. Well, actually, the first dog to turn around gets a treat and the second one means the walk starts. So far it's Dottie every time. Great way to start a walk: attention on me.

I'll post a video of our door work progress soon, I'm really proud of my guys.

I'm volunteering for a Four on the Floor class and it's so much fun watching people learn mat games. I did mat work with Dottie for a while, and when I brought her to Feisty Fido class the first thing she did was lay on the mat without me asking. I was so surprised, she really is not a "lay anywhere" kind of dog. I guess this stuff really does sink in after a while.

I'm reading "Bringing Light to Shadow" right now: have you read it?

Kate and Rob said...

can't wait for the video! It'll give me more ideas!

Plus I've got to say, Dottie is so funny to watch, she's so very expressive! Gustav is such a stoic guy, I just want to sit beside him and lean into him.

I use mats in classes too but adding this reorienting part is brilliant! I don't know how many times I've read Control Unleashed but I guess the universe seems to give you the answers when it's time... I haven't read that book ...I'll have to google it!