This past Monday we took Tarra to some mini agility run thrus a few hours away. I brought her absolute favorite motivators: destroyed Kong Wubba, destroyed stuffed toy, soft treats, cheese, and cat food. She'll take a toy over treats anyday, she's really not that enthusiastic working for food unless we're shaping something. BUT I always bring treats because I know that she'll take treats even if she's stressed. Tugging is a little bit harder when she's stressed.
First Run: She completely ignored me and sniffed this amazing smelly dirt that she's never seen. Then she sniffed her way out of the ring, lol. So we tried with her on leash, and I got her to do a few more obstacles. But she was refusing my treats.
Second Run: Time to bring out the big stuff: cat food. Talk about a transformation! No sniffing, focused, no refusals, did a course of 10 obstacles. She never gets cat food so now I save it for trials/run thrus.
The next three runs just got better and better. Off leash, focused, and on her last run I didn't have the cat food in my hand, we ran the course, and I hooked up her leash and we left the ring and immediately she got a huge jackpot of cat food. :)
In total we only used 1 can of cat food. Who knew.
Overall I consider this a huge breakthrough! This is a dog that is easily stressed in new locations, and here she is running a course with no motivator, in a new location, indoors,on a new flooring, and plenty of distractions!!
I'm SO proud of my baby dog!! (yes i consider her a baby)
here's the link to the vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2NzigzQ1kU
I know we still have ALOT of work to do, but we've got a few months to fix those problems and more fun matches to come! :)
Tarra enjoying her treats:
First Run: She completely ignored me and sniffed this amazing smelly dirt that she's never seen. Then she sniffed her way out of the ring, lol. So we tried with her on leash, and I got her to do a few more obstacles. But she was refusing my treats.
Second Run: Time to bring out the big stuff: cat food. Talk about a transformation! No sniffing, focused, no refusals, did a course of 10 obstacles. She never gets cat food so now I save it for trials/run thrus.
The next three runs just got better and better. Off leash, focused, and on her last run I didn't have the cat food in my hand, we ran the course, and I hooked up her leash and we left the ring and immediately she got a huge jackpot of cat food. :)
In total we only used 1 can of cat food. Who knew.
Overall I consider this a huge breakthrough! This is a dog that is easily stressed in new locations, and here she is running a course with no motivator, in a new location, indoors,on a new flooring, and plenty of distractions!!
I'm SO proud of my baby dog!! (yes i consider her a baby)
here's the link to the vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2NzigzQ1kU
I know we still have ALOT of work to do, but we've got a few months to fix those problems and more fun matches to come! :)
Tarra enjoying her treats:
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