Right now our Saturday classes are extremely popular – a class of 4 and of 10 beginners in agility, 5 dogs in manners, and 5 in an intermediate agility class – plus additional private sessions. We also have to cancel for seminars, trials hosted at our building (WCRL rally and soon UKC nosework), and when I’m away volunteering for a few 4-H things (heading a statewide education event, 2 county fairs and state fair agility). Griffin needs some agility passes in classes that are usually only offered on Saturdays but I really don’t want to cancel more classes.
Other people have handled him in training on occasion and he’s been quite cooperative (in exchange for treats). We decided to test him with someone else tonight. I drove out for practice runs at a place where we do some trials. I did the first run to warm him up.
When he went out with the friend…. he did a trial-like iffy start line and was cooperative enough on the first line. And then he ran back. We were able to get him to go back to her but he just wouldn’t work.
We aren’t going to give up – we’ll see how he is for her in a more familiar environment and go from there. This does tell me a few things about his fluency and that some of his behaviors are nowhere as strong as I would have expected. If some of his behaviors were stronger, he should have responded even with the slight variations of another person or the stress of focusing on someone else with me around.
More training!
1 Comment
Laura and the Corgi, Toller, & Duck · March 13, 2016 at 4:37 am
A very fun experiment! I was shocked (and relieved) when Vito worked for someone else in a trial earlier this year when I was injured. It was never something I thought to practice before and now I totally see it’s value! Griffin will get it in no time I’m sure! He might be more comfortable too if he knows he came with the person and you’re not around.
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