Monday, April 26, 2010

Week 17

Sixteen down (thirty-six to go)

Canine Good Citizen Class was canceled due to rain, and the rest of the week was swallowed up with a special project I was frantically trying to finish by an immovable deadline and a weekend vacation.

THEREFORE

As Dean of Zachary's School of Canine Enlightenment, I officially call a do-over and leave the Weekly Worksheet unchanged from last week.

It's good to be The Dean.

(Project finished, Vacation over, there will be no excuses for next week!)

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Week 16

Fifteen down (thirty-seven to go)

We had our second Canine Good Citizen class this week, and Zachary was a very good boy. To read about our exploits, check out the Blogs section below.

Beau, hardly forgotten, got lots of treats without a lot of effort – a good thing as far as Beau was concerned.

Accomplished Last Week:

Curriculum: TL2 (On The Road) – Come. Tried Watch but failed miserably.

Weekly Quiz: Didn’t get to the Grooming part on most days, as I never seemed to have a family member handy. Holding it over for next week.

Extracurricular: TL2 (On The Road) – Distance, Go To Mat, more 101 Things…

Videoed: TL2 OTR Come, Distance, Go To Mat

Released Video: Zachary – Training Levels Four (OTR 2 - part 2)

Blog: CGC – Class #2, On The Road, On The Road (again)

Planned for Next Week:

Sorry Beau, this week will again be almost all about Zachary.

This week is all about Canine Good Citizen for Zachary.

Since Trick of the Month isn't working for either dog, I might do a late-month course correction and try for something else.

(As always, click to make bigger)


Sunday, April 11, 2010

Week 15

Fourteen down (thirty-nine to go)

We had our first Canine Good Citizen class this week, and I think Zachary did pretty well. I was hoping to have time to practice Loose Leash and Greetings over the weekend, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Accomplished Last Week:

Curriculum: Sit-stay, Sit-stay, Sit-stay (and still Zachary goes down when I turn my back.) His recalls were nice in the house so we’ll see how he does in class this week.

Extracurricular: TL4 – High Jump, TL3 – Contact, TL4 – Distance, TL4 – Tricks (101 Things to do with a “Box”) - Zachary, Helping Paw – Beau.

I’m doing the “one-behavior-a-day” variation of “101 Things to do with a Box” (or, in our case, a moderate-sized plastic basket) for Zachary, and so far we have “two paws in the basket”, “two paws on top of the overturned basket”, “one paw in the basket with the other on the rim”, “nose touch the edge of the overturned basket”, and (my favorite) “jump over the basket”. I’m spending just a few minutes (2-4) per session.

I’ll do a few more and then call it done and (maybe) piece it together into a montage.

I have played 101 Things with Beau multiple times in the past (both at home and On The Road), he visibly loathes it, and I don’t see any reason to subject him to it again just to get it on video. He’s been working on holding a (different) basket, instead, for Just For Fun. Zachary will probably not have time to do that this month and I might just keep it on the list through May.

Videoed: TL4 – Distance (10’), TL4 – Jump, High (Beau), TL4 – Tricks (Zachary)

Blog:  CGC – Class #1Scrapbook – Jump (this is Photo of The Week), and Goals - Revisited

Planned for Next Week:

Sorry Beau, this week will be almost all about Zachary, with the possible exception of Trick of the Month (neither dog doing well) and Contacts (Beau is leaving Zachary in the dust!)

CGC Class (Zachary) - Let’s hope we can get some socialization work in this week plus work on separation. I’m going to work toward a 3 minute out-of-sight down-stay to help him deal with to me being “gone”.

Looking over the Video Guide, it appears that Beau just needs Contacts, Crate, and Leash Manners in order to finish out all that I plan on videoing for Level Three. This will most likely be the highest level he completes, as I don’t plan on doing the On The Road items he would need to finish Level Four. Of course, he will still get to do all the “fun stuff” of the higher levels.

Zachary just needs Crate and Contacts to finish Level Three. Heel has been videoed, just not released.

Beau has a Training Level Three video "in the can" and just awaiting me time to upload it to YouTube.

(As always, click to make bigger)

... rats, just realized that last line in Extracurricular ("Distance") should be TL2 OTR. Too late!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Week 14

Thirteen down (forty to go)

As expected, time this week was short. It didn’t help at all that it rained over Easter weekend (when I actually did have time) so I didn’t get On The Road items done as I had hoped.

It also rained on Canine Good Citizen (CGC) class day – so the first class starts this week instead.

Accomplished Last Week:

Curriculum: Spent most of our time on the extremely elusive (for Zachary) sit-stay. I believe he’s now fine so long as I’m in the room and staring at him, but will still go down after ~15 seconds if I leave or turn my back.

Extracurricular: TL4 – Distance and High Jump

Videoed: TL4 – Distance (10’), TL4 – Jump, High (Zachary)

Blog: Scrapbook – Catch, Training Levels – Checklists

Planned for Next Week:

Weather should be nice, so CGC Class should be a “go” for Zachary.

If possible, will try to video OTR Come in the spare training yard, as Zachary has only been there a few times and it should still be “new’ – plus it smells like many, many dogs.

(As always, click to make bigger)