Lately I have been doing alot of reading about "being the cookie" for your dog. In other words your dog needs to find you to be the most exciting thing on earth. More fun then other dogs, people, rabbits :) :) etc. I have been struggling with this. I am quite a hyper happy person so to speak, but I can't seem to transfer the excitement to my dog for very long.
I get tired !
Last night we did some Obedience & Scenthurdle work at a local park, there were tons of people, children, dogs, bikes, roller bladers & skate boarders. I did great for the first 10 minutes or so of warm up, but then poof, I was done. So I just tried doing some short bursts of work then putting Kort away. The only thing is I get frustrated with myself & my lack of ideas to pump Kort up , it means I can't get as much training in as I would like. I do realize that a short, happy session is better then a long boring one, but I want to have a long happy session :)
Scenthurdle was great, Kort is always ready & pumped up for that so it was a great way to end our evening. This weekend is an agility trial as well so that also makes Kort happy, I just have to work on myself.
4 comments:
Jo it will pay off ... Keep the sessions short and do more of them. Wouldn't you rather go to work with 6 coffee breaks over 8 hours rather than 1?? I know I would more excited to get back. Mix it up though - sometimes 30 seconds, sometimes 3 minutes. You will get more out of a training session if you are keeping each session specific. I think the key with it like anything is to quit while you're ahead with Kort. Stop before you do "just one more" - I think that is the hardest thing to do!!!. Kort is so cute and happy, you guys are becoming a really good team :)
Don't forget how young he is too! I find my dogs can work longer and longer as they get older. I can easily work Lupine for 15 mins here at home and she would probably do more. But I wouldn't ask that of my younger dogs because I don't think they could do it without me losing them.
Sometimes just taking 2 weeks off of all training can help too - both for me and for my dogs.
Kort's a great dog - you guys will get there!!
This sounds very exhausting to me. You are a brave, committed soul. I'm going to bed now.
I disagree with that whole philosophy that we have to be more interesting to our dogs than anything in the world. I think it's an impossible goal. While my dogs love to be with me, a steak on the ground or a squirrel in the bushes is always going to be better than me. The only big name dog trainer I've ever heard who has said that we can't be more interesting than everything else is Leslie McDevitt who wrote Control Unleashed. And boy do I agree with her. :)
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