Wednesday 16 May 2012

Setting realistic goals!

Since we started doing Agility with a trainer many problems have arisen,which wouldn't have been found otherwise. While i am thankful that they have been discovered,i am perhaps a little devastated to discover that Oscar,as good as he is,has practically no recall what so ever!!!
Not to mention his lack of attention and focus on me and his rather disappointing lack of interest in toys. He is a beagle i know,but its clear that i had the bar too high for him to reach.
I tried to many things a once and didn't finish or proof commands properly,and look at where its got me. Pretty far i suppose,with a dog that can do an abundance of tricks and most of the basics. But i didn't train some things properly or i failed to recognize the problems in the early training sessions.
He used to have a fairly good recall,you could let him off leash in fields and he would come back when called,but then something changed and it went down hill from there.
So in light of all these discoveries i have made realistic goals for us,
*Recall
    -Retrain new command,"to me".
    -train using food times,restrained recalls and play recall games
    -Use a long line in new places

*Agility
   - train 'nose touch contacts' using games.
   -retrain the seesaw(he got spooked the last day on it)
   -Buy a curved tunnel
   -Teach left,right,twist and turn commands
   -work on speed and running ahead of me

*Basics
   -Work on focus
   -Go back to using a clicker
   -Perfect loose leash walking
   -Work on food bolting
   -Socialization

*Drive
   -Buy a tug e nuff and use during training to increase tug drive and interest in toys
     


I have also decided to bake treats from now on,works out cheaper and better!!! Hopefully we will be able to achieve most of these goals by the end of summer,but if i can get my recall and focus work done then i will be delighted!!


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