I should've stuck with goldfish...

Bit of a nutty day, too long to go into but these dogs simply must get a job. It's now $86 for a basic once a year shot!!! Not including Sierra is on another 14 days of the $$$ antirobe (to further her prior 21 days...) plus the re-examine fee, plus the examine fee. *faints at the numbers as they crunch* Remind me why I didn't want to train nice cheap goldfish again?

Sierra - Rewards: kibble, dehydrated liver and bits of biscuits

Did a quick review and clicked 15x offered sits.
Started introducing the cue word 'sit' just before the sit was offered. 2 sessions of 15x
Tested to see if the association was there, yep, she responded. (No big shock. This is a refresher course for her and I have my doubts she was really paying attention to WHAT I was saying... ) Started on the next step and got out my stop watch and 50 treats. Was going pretty well until the point I started tossing the treats out a bit further. We've done some work on down at a distance but not sits so she got about 15' out and when I signaled her not to come back in she immediately plopped and sttaaarrreedddd. DOH! She was SURE we were working on down at a distance and if she just waited long enough I'd click... eventually. After five minutes (she's nothing if not persistant...) I called her back in.
New game plan: go back a few steps and work on getting her to offer sits at a distance. Went through 3 sets of 15x each offering. Introduced the cue word. We were doing wonderfully until the 12th sit when she ploinked into a down and staaaarreeedddd. *SIGH* I called her back in and gave her treats for coming.

Cade- Started at the beginning... getting him to offer sets of 15 sits. Did one set near me, one set at a distance. (See? I learn too!) That set got to maybe 6' around me. Third set: goal to get him offering further out. Results: I got him working a little further but not significantly so. I also have LOTS of casting about and sniffing between sits to make sure there weren't any stray treats around. Surely I didn't think his elegant little IG self rated the same rate of pay as that big fuzzy red ox! (I must get working with him on tracking again!) He offered down-n-stares a couple of times. (Gee... guess what we've been working on!) Last two sits he offered got big handfuls of kibble to celebrate and thus endeth the training.

We're going to have to look at exercise for the leg he injured. I looked at it today and noticed the muscle on it is a lot less developed than on the other side and there is a barely perceptable stiffness to it (vet didn't notice till I pointed out exactly what to look for) which may mean the gluco/condroitin isn't enough.

*YAWN* I'll think about what it all means and new goals in the morning.

WYRIWYG or What You Reinforce Is What You Get

For anyone who may have wandered across this and is wondering what the heck it's all about, this is a record of training sessions of my dogs.

I have three dogs:
Cade - 8 yo Italian Greyhound neutered male, red and white, total ham, lives to eat, thinks the world was created to adore him and is way too smart for my own good. Has his CGC but hasn't done much since. Retired from agility training years ago due to a hip injury in a lure course practice.
Isabella - 8 yo Italian Greyhound spayed female, red and white, was rescued from a puppymill and is a bit quiet and nervous still
Sierra - 3 yo Aussie Shepherd spayed female, red merle copper and white, sweet, soft, a bit of a sookie girl but wants soooo badly to please. She's also a total gut and the 'innocent' of the group. (The Italians are coniving little shysters who spend their lives plotting evil and mayhem... *G*) She has her CGC and her U-AG I but we moved overseas so she's spent over a year off in quarantine/horrid pregnancy/demanding baby.

We're aiming to get Cade into obedience trials and Sierra into obedience, agility, endurance and freestyle.

Sierra
Sit - 15x/session
Trial 1: 2:28.32
Trial 2: 1:46:28 offering a lot of bows and downs
Trial 3: 1:28:52 less offering, distracted by Nic and Laurent
Trial 4: 1:18:91 distracted by Nic, offering a lot of bows
5: 1:17:93, less bows
6: 2:03:86 lost treat under door, Cade got out of crate
7 1:25:39, lost treat under chair, must learn to toss neater
8: 1:18:09 .
9 ran out of treats, jackpotted and ended
10 ran out of treats
Conclusions: she is loosing time chasing down treats as the skid all over the floor. She is also orienting to my front, sitting no further than 5' away from me and returning to me to do the next sit. May be a problem for distance sits and sitting in other positions. Need to work her on distance and orientation.

Cade Sit x15 per session
Trial 1: *PLOP* "It's too bloody hot..." (Fair enough, it IS 34C!)