We worked on heeling and moving downs at home. Still a little late on the downs. After a few of them she starts to expect it and will slow down waiting for the cue.

In class, we worked on stays with tension on the leash, heeling footwork, and introduced a scenting exercise with lids. We did well except my footwork is terrible. I must've made a complete fool of myself in my past dance classes .


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I think I've been told that rolling onto the hip is a sign that the dog has "committed to the down" and is a good thing.

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Zoe, Rockwall Nantucket Breeze, BN, CGC, Delta therapy dog
Zeke, our introduction to the world of Golden Retrievers

Thank you! I won't discourage it.


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Yeah, I spend a lot of time reinforcing a rolled hip. When first teaching down, I lure them with the treat held back by their hip, and they will have to roll onto the other hip to get to it. After the treat is removed, I still give my signal back by their hip. Because Flip would prefer to do a sphinx, I spend a lot of time rewarding the roll, and I always pet him on the hip facing up with some friendly pats to remind him it's the roll I want.

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Jodie

AJ's Maiden By the Sea CDX RE (Annabel - retired)
Mud E Paws UDX OM2 RE OBHF (Conner - retired with 28 OTCH points)
Sunfire's Flying Head Over Heels UD BN RA (Flip)
And the odd one of the family - Colby Jack Teeter Smack CDX GO RA (Colby - Lhasa Apso)

I'm actually always relieved when Bella rolls on to the hip. The more relaxed tthe better.

Molly's natural down is actually on her left hip. I am a worry wart.. So I always think *hip problems*.


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Thank you! My camera always makes his nose look bigger than his head. (See today's picture.)

Congrats on the CGC!

Last night was the big graduation night. He got a *diploma*. My husband has been teasing me for weeks that only his dog, many years ago, has ever gotten an award. I took his bloodhound mix to obedience class and we got "Most Improved" because I managed to keep the dog's nose off the ground for about one minute after 10 weeks of practice. So now Casper has a diploma, not a mere certificate.

For graduation night, we all tried these exercises:

• Sit-Down-Sit-Down - Accomplished, though his back end did not stay in one place.
• Sit with a treat 6" away and owner 2' away - Accomplished. I held the stay too long and he jumped on me when I released him. Lesson learned.
• Sit-Stay while owner skips 10 feet away and wait 10 seconds - Accomplished. Easy, as we've been working through the Relaxation Protocol by Overall.
• Heel in three circles while owner carries treat in a spoon with the leash hand - Accomplished the first try. He started jumping around on the second try, and that, of course, was when the instructor was looking.
• 10 Sits by hand signal only - Accomplished. The main work was getting him back up to sit again. He was in sit mode last night.

Casper's special trick was Back Up. He was pretty excited last night, so I had to ask three times for this usually rock solid command. I've heard it's hard for dogs to do it without barking. He looks like a windup toy when he does it.

And here's a pic:



Today, I took him on a walk around the campus at work. It's a huge place. We have sidewalks, athletic fields, parking lots, and even trails. He did extremely well in the populated areas, not dragging me off to meet people or getting excited and jumping around. A couple of times he tried to go visit, I said Leave It, and he actually did! Such a change from last summer, when he had so much trouble I had to send him back home with my husband before we could even start his walk.

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Good job Casper!!

Today Molly and I did more scenting games but she thinks all the lids are toys. So instead I scented one metal article and just put it next to one unscented and told her to "get it". She got the right one every time. I didn't do it too many times because I was just experimenting and I didn't want to inadvertently train it incorrectly. Does anybody know if I should not be doing something like this?

We drove to the park and before I let her off, we practiced heeling and figure 8's in the parking lot. The crows were the biggest distraction (and the fact that she was in her we're-at-the-park mindset) but we did pretty well.

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Somebody kick me off the couch and make me go do articles!

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Jodie

AJ's Maiden By the Sea CDX RE (Annabel - retired)
Mud E Paws UDX OM2 RE OBHF (Conner - retired with 28 OTCH points)
Sunfire's Flying Head Over Heels UD BN RA (Flip)
And the odd one of the family - Colby Jack Teeter Smack CDX GO RA (Colby - Lhasa Apso)

OK. Off the couch with you.

However, *I* am not going to wake up the dog to practice.

Wait, isn't it the middle of the night there?

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