Saturday, July 27, 2013

It has begun!


Well, since she's staying, I figured I may as well actually start working with Kizzy on some agility stuff. Maybe one of these days I'll sit down with her and go over the other basics in life (like sit, down, wait, crate training and all of that good stuff....). But for now this is just all about play, play and play some more!

Admittedly, this is kind of new to me. Kizzy is the first dog I've had the opportunity to train with toys since day one. Guess we'll see how that turns out!

We are actually "off" until the weekend of August 17 now! So many free weekends in a row, I'm not quite sure what I"ll do with myself. With Kizzy's arrival, I decided to skip the AKC trial I was thinking of doing on the 10th (saving money is a good thing going into Champs, after all). September is going to be a busy month with AKC & NADAC here in La Crosse followed by Champs in Springfield, IL, so I figure it's not a bad thing to have some down time in August.

3 comments:

  1. Karissa, Kizzy is absolutely amazing! If you are still having trouble getting her to release the tug toy, try the method suggested in Bad Dog Agility's video: http://youtu.be/QeHV_auKzxg It worked like a charm with Willie. I tried it with another puppy yesterday, and it worked quite well with her also.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! That's the same method I use (make the toy "dead" and unappealing) and it typically works very well -- And if I'm JUST having a tug session with Kizzy she seems to be better about releasing. Likely it's because I get the release and she immediately gets the toy back again. When using the toys in training, though, I get the toy back and "withhold" it from her until she gets it as a reward for doing something. I think she thinks that part of the game is total crap. ;o) I do try to mix it up and occasionally reward immediately for a release during these training sessions -- and I can usually get her to release by showing her another toy, too, but she catches on quickly. lol

      We'll keep working on it. Her impulse control has improved a lot over the last few weeks without me really focusing on it too much (just doing day-to-day activities with basic expectations of living in my house). One of these days we'll start working on some crate games and eventually it will all come together. I finally got the toy crazy dog I was looking for, though, that's for sure! Just in a smaller package than I was expecting. :o)

      Thanks again!

      Delete
    2. You got the toy-driven dog that I always wanted too! :)

      Delete