Day 89 (12/04/17): training with Sherry and at home, outgrowing her gear

We drove down to Auntie Sherry's again, to record Rally-FrEe with Chimera. Terra had to wait in a side yard while we trained and you can hear her whining loudly on the video. What a sad dog.

Terra got training time, too. I put on her "in training" vest, asked her to wait at my side, and rewarded her for ignoring Sherry. Separately, I pulled her collar up her neck and held my hand at the top to cue her conformation stay, and rewarded her for ignoring Sherry reaching out with her hand. Finally we did a ring gate exercise - I cued "let's go," we walked through the gates, and then she got a treat! This helps establish a positive association with entering a training ring.

Back at home, we practiced nose work. Our intro class at FDSA finished up a couple of weeks ago. We were progressing through the material quite slowly, and were still on week 2's lectures. So I signed up for another gold spot in this term's 101 class. I really want her to be a nose work superstar!

We practiced hand stacking. It's time for me to learn how to properly stack her instead of just practicing moving her legs around. I need to set up a mirror so that I can see how she looks from the judge's perspective.

We did the bucket game, and she's pretty much got the idea that she should ignore me touching her and just look at the bucket. I'm just doing touches on her back.

We did chin targets, and again she's learning to just hold the target while I very lightly touch her head. Having a hand move right in front of her is still a challenge.

Put on a head halter for a few seconds between treats. Right now I can control her with a back clip harness 90% of the time, but I might as well train it as another cooperative care exercise just in case.

Terra was on the cusp of outgrowing the training vest, so I ordered a new one with labels that say specifically "service dog in training." We'll see how comfortable I can get her to be in crowds and around noises. It's a big "if" right now, but we'll take it one day at a time.

She's outgrown her puppy collars, but I already had three adult sized collars on hand, purchased before I even brought her home. She's also outgrown the medium sized Balance Harness. I don't have a large one on hand, so I switched her to an extra-large Freedom Harness. (Funny how different sizing is between brands.) I'm still using the back clip since she usually doesn't pull hard.