The title of the new 6 week session is "Dog Meets Jump". Today we had our dogs going over a jump bar for the first time! (In theory, as Chimera has been doing a bunch of handling work on super low jumps since he was little. I'm an overachiever.)
We did a few different jump foundation exercises. Restrained recalls, including with lateral distance. Jump around the clock, focusing on rewarding stays even more than practicing releasing over the jump. Shaping a collected jump with us standing in decel position. And using a collar grab to get our dog to focus forward, then running with them and throwing a toy/treats ahead. Most of this was old hat for the monster. We did some at 4 inches and some at 8 inches. It's hard for me to measure him, but he seems to be just under 12 inches. Eep, I hope he doesn't measure over 12, since that would put him in a higher jump height.
Since we've been working on retrieving different kinds of objects, I figured it was time to introduce a small treat container as a throwable reward. Up until now, I'd used toys when throwing rewards because I knew he would run away with any food containers. Toys are lower value, though. I did use socks with treats inside, and that worked okay, but he kept ripping giant holes in the socks and then the treats would fall out too much. So today I tried out a little pill bottle with cut up sausage, beef liver, and peanut butter flavored Zukes inside. It was a big hit! He let me put my hands on it every time so that I could open it and hand him a treat, and a few times he even brought it toward my hand. What a good boy. Besides using the retrieve to combat his guarding problem, I just love having a dog who retrieves all different kinds of things. I dream of teaching him the hot dog retrieve someday!
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