Sally~Sally's handlers are working hard on extinguishing the use of hand signals for all of her obedience and task work, as well as improving the PAWS command to allow just one movement of the paw to shut off the lights rather than letting her "swim" on the wall. She is happy to work and is eager to learn new things. Sally is still a rather low confidence dog, as evedenced my some obstace work we did in class this week, but her recovery is good when given just a minute or told to QUIET or SAY HELLO. I have asked her handler to start thinking about her strengths and weaknesses for her exit report.
JC~JC will be coming out with me for the next several weeks for remedial training and evaluation. When I took her out in public three weeks ago her obedience was lax and her task work was non-existant. Dawn took her out last week and she was a bit better but still required several commands for simple obedience, and tasks were slow at best. This week JC and I went to Old Navy, Whole Foods, The Paper Store, a toy store, to the gym, my home, visiting my parents, out to dinner and a live show, to training, and to a nursing care facility. I used very high value bait~cheese~ and a triple crown collar for correction. She showed dramatic improvement overall and was a pleasure to work with. JC was good at the nursing home, but had to be corected several times because she REALLY wanted to eat the carnations that we passed out to the ladies. I found that SAY HELLO was too forceful (JC is not doing anything wrong, but she still scared some of the ladies) so a HEEL up to a person's knees and a STAND and STAY worked best for us in this situation. She still needs work in some areas (leave it, through, auto sit, attention, fetch and hold) and needs to be weaned off of food for working, but overall I am encouraged. My plan is to continue to take her out midweek until she no longer needs me.
Rubin~Rubin is finding that going up stairs step by step is difficult for him, so we're working on just getting him comfortable on any set of stairs that he's on. He also had a difficult time with a short A frame in class, he never got his back paws onto it. He is going to start directed retrieve this week, which he will love. Scott will be teaching Billy and Rubin and all of the other handlers the directed retrieve with a clicker. Rubin's obedience is great, he's getting along well with the other dogs in the house and seems to be having no adjustment issues at all.
Cheyenne~She still has laser beam attention and a sweet disposition. I love this puppy! She is always ready to work, play, jump, run. Her handler is working slowly, and her postion on sits and downs in excellent. She has a crooked sit on the recall, but we're working on it. STAND is coming along well. Handler is working on getting rid of hand signals for basic obedience and not using food for commands that she knows already. No tug play this week, she has lost all of her teeth! ;)
NOTES:
* Saturday~JC and Sally went to training for three hours then on a 3 hour group field trip to a nursing care facility and were both excellent with the patients. They also both went to dinner and a live show that same night. Both dogs were great there, but Sally was absolutely unflappable. Excellent job.
* All are working on extinguishing hand signals for certain commands.
* Sally to have left ear checked by a vet~no sign of an ear infection, but it is overly sensitive X3 weeks.
* Thank you Chris for being the PCC scribe, you are making my life so much easier!!
* Please find "open" stairs to work your dog on. (Wooden stairs with open backs, metal fire escape type stairs, stairs with glass walls, in a mall)
* Next Saturday Rubin will be attending a LIONS event and meeting the LEOS, a group of teens that are interested in giving back to their community. I am sure he will make a great ambassador!
