Week #38

We are working our way through the core studies (sit, down, come,...) evaluation, with Zachary in blue and Henry in red. A green square means they both have passed the item. A yellow square means one or the other has.

I'm really liking this concise format - so much so, that I have added a new chart, this one for basic skills needed for Extracurricular Activities. Sadly, Henry knows few things on this chart, but I'll give them all a try and see what moves him. :)

While I was out today, I stumbled across something that would make a great halloween prop, but it will require a bit of work. We'll see if we are successful or not - but until I give up on it, you'll see it at the very end of the page.

Finally, for the moment, the weekly quiz has been replaced by a weekly warmup. This is mostly because the sort of basic skills I normally quiz on (sit, down, come,...) are what I'm evaluating, and "all work and no play makes the boys go away".

So, for at least the next few weeks, the warmups will be tricks they enjoy, get them moving, and "in the game".

(As always, click to see larger)

Week #37

At least I think it's #37 - I have admittedly been woefully quiet here. That said, here's the start of the Fall Quarter. After a rather long (vast understatement) absence, I decided to make an easy chart of what I expect from the boys at a Core Studies level, and march my way through it, updating their progress on future sheets.

This isn't any one specific training plan, although it borrows heavily from the steps I progressed through training Sue Ailsby's original Training Levels to Beau and Zachary. For the curious:

Attention = is the dog looking at me  (Focus or Watch)
Chill = Go to Mat
With Me = Heel
Zen Hand = don't eat what's in my hand
Zen Floor = don't eat what's on the floor

Some of this should be easy for the boys. Some may be new to Henry. We'll just see how it goes.

My own job for this week is to decide what non-core (family member, citizenship, and extracurricular studies) things I'm going to add for this quarter, and come up with a single sheet of wishful thinking that will take me through the end of November.

To that end, I'm going to take the curriculum jpegs I've uploaded here, and recreate them in manipulatable form (i.e.: word, power point, or excel.)

(Folks might recall that my hard disk crashed over the summer, taking all the originals with it.)

The concept of the Quiz hasn't changed any - I test each dog, once a day, on the skills listed there. These are things they should have no problems with.

Blue Star = Zachary, Red Star = Henry, indicating "passing" that item.

(As always, click to see larger)