Cold weather equals more Iceland Sheepdog training time

Hello Folks

First a lovely photo of Voodoo Child, thanks for the great update on him from his owner, and glad to hear that he is about to start puppy training class two in Feb, you go guys..

Speaking of training, its cold here!!! yikes, minus 37 today with wind chill, minus 20 without wind chill.. yesterday was not much better so it was a indoor dog training day.. so worked a number of dogs yesterday, first we had a major hide and seek group game, that is when I take dog cookies and put all the dogs into the kitchen area and then spend a few minutes, hiding doggy cookies everywhere I can think of in the living room, and then letting all the dogs into the room and saying, find the cookies, some are really easy, some are somewhat hard to find and some are in very strange places.. Its alot of fun, and my older dogs who have been playing for years are quite good at looking up, down, and inside things.. only word of caution if anyone thinks this would be a good game, and trust me it is fun, is don't ever hide a cookie in or around anything you don't want knocked down..because the dogs remember where they were, and even if its empty this time round because, let say you got a new plant or something you don't want them being by, they will check it out..

For a quick and easy version, dump a pile of pillows in a mound on the floor with treats under and in the pile and then let one dog find them.

So then on to one on one training, Bella worked on tricks, she is learning a new one, stand on back legs and wave in the air, Dalla is working on weave poles, shake a paw as well as bow for a auto-down for agility. Ada is working obedance, and we are working hard on by-me's at this time, Tera is working on proofing left and right at this time, and Freyja well, we did a few min of conformation training, a few min of obedance training and then a whole lot of target training.. So if you want to give the target training a try, first, you need your dog to understand the clicker, and then you need your target, in my case its a flying squrrel dog toy, I like that lays mostly flat, but I can throw it and have it fly at a certain training point.

So start with lots of little tiny treats, I use hotdog, put down your target, (lots of folks use a mouse pad), and take your dog by the collar and show them you putting the treat on the target, from about three feet away, then hopefully, while they are leaning forward, (wanting to go to the treat) let go and when they get to the target, click in time with them getting their reward ( at first, I really don't speak, I let the clicker do all the talking for me, once they really understand, I can and will bring in verbal, but not at first, I want them thinking it though, not listening to me), so repeat three to five time, until the dog or puppy is running for the target and treats, then start to move the target futher away, until you are able to go from one end of the room to the other. Only at that point should you consider working on the next step, which is to bring the target back up close to you, and start working with your puppy two or three feet away again, do one or two treats on the target to get the dog up and happy and then on the third time, do not put a treat on the target, and then wait.. now its not uncommen to get the puppy giving your behaviours, (examples, watching you, sits, downs, etc) but wait it out, because at some point they will go over the target and the moment their nose touchs it, click and then have them come back to you for the reward. Mix up the amount of rewards at this point, lots of little jackpots mixed in.

Once you have got it solid for a couple feet away, for every three to five correct, go to target, click and rewards, I take one step back, so that puppy is going longer and longer between the target and myself.. until you are back to being from one end of the room to the other.

You can also inlist the help of your children or hubbies, in either holding the puppy back while you "load" the target in training, and then click when the puppy gets to the treat on the target, (just make sure the other person also has a clicker and food rewards for the come recall) and there you are training two things at once.. never a bad thing.. just remember, you are teaching a chain of events that the dog or puppy needs to do, and lots of rewards and praise for each step of the way, and if you are struggling, always back up to a good finish, always let the dog finish with a win, keep your training short, sweet and often for the best results!

Have fun, I was quite pleased to show Jason last night all the new things the dogs are learning.. he was quite impressed with Freyja's speed and focus for the target..

Barks