Our Advanced Certificate finally arrived!!!! So proud!
We needed just five points and since we already had
- Wave Goodbye (1 point)
- Weave (2 points)
We had 3 points to start on our quest for Advance certification..
We practiced ‘place on the left’ (1 point) – which was circle behind and stand on the left.
This was easy for me.
Now, we needed to perfect ‘Footsies and walking’ (2 points). The interesting thing about this is I learnt to walk on Mum’s feet pretty easily.
The harder part was learning to put my paws on Mum’s feet by myself. It seemed an unnatural thing to do.
We tried a few things first. Mum used a book for me to stand on. Then once I got the idea that I needed to step up, she then replaced it with her slippers.
And I liked stepping on the slippers because I could get a better grip. Mum thought she could move back to having me stand on her feet but it wasn’t working for two reasons.
For one, the slippers gave me more of a platform to stand on. And even though Mum could use her toes to stop me from sliding off, it was killing her feet! If you remember she had an op on her foot last September and putting my weight on it was not a good idea.
And after a few sessions, with breaks in between, something flipped the switch and I got it!
This took awhile but we did it!
Now I get to proudly wear the Advance Trick Dog ribbon!
May’s comment: Woohoo! We did it!
The Weave and Footsies were two that needed work.
Again, through all this, I am learning so much more about Darcy. She’s used to getting directions from me from the days we did agility. So that connection for communication is there. And because she is food-orientated, she tries to please to get her reward. But she needed to work out what I wanted her to do.
She would try and try and then when she had enough, she would walk away no matter how delicious the sausages are. And I must stop and not push her. It might be later in the day or another day, but when we pick up the training session, and I wait to see what she will do and time and time again, she somehow just seem to get it when I give her the time to process it.
What I have found helpful for her is to show her what I want her to do.
For example, with the weave, different people have tried to teach her with different methods over the years. Luring her with treats was one of the methods but when the treats were too close to her, she lost concentration and was completely focused on the treats rather than what she was doing.
Julie suggested I lead her along with a leash and treat her at the end. After leading her through about five-six times and treated immediately, she got it. When I removed the leash, she weaved by herself slowly, tentatively and looking for affirmation. She tended to always miss the last pole at the end but we kept at it. When she got the weave manoeuver, we moved faster as she gained her confidence when she saw that I was pleased with her performance.
I was so proud of her that she finally got this down. We need to keep practising for her to gain confidence.
So now we are going to attempt the Expert title. We have two tricks already under our belt and need three more. This will take awhile – when I have time again.
If you want to participate in teaching your dogs some tricks, join Julie and Barnaby’s Trick Team on Facebook. There you will find videos of how to teach your dogs tricks. The certificates are fun but teaching your dogs, engaging with them, for me is the reward.
One Response
Really great job May! I think you should share your Jump over my back trick as well! 😉 Even if it needs a bit of perfecting… 10/10 for effort with all your tricks.