Oh! Oh! And also, on the training front: I have been working on ‘stand’ with a hand cue with Maia. Last night at agility we were working with the clicker in between our turns on the equipment and we did a bunch of ‘stands’ from sit. I saw that she was starting to just stand, rather than stand and move forward. (I taught this using my touch signal and clicking when she was just moving into the stand, and then changed the hand signal. She was continuously moving forward to touch, though, until last night.) This in itself was a break through, as she was understanding what I wanted her to do.
I decided to see if she could do it from a down. The first three times she moved into a sit and when I didn’t respond at all, she stood. I clicked and treated. The fourth time, she came up directly to a stand. Yay jackpot! She repeated it, too, all the other times I tried it over the course of the evening, except (of course) when I wanted Dana to watch. Oh well – we will keep perfecting it this week and then show it off next week. Proud of my girl!!
Originally published at idle musings. You can comment here or there.