(6th entry in journal)
Guest author: The Pooch Professor
No, I didn't fall in a hole! My first Basic Obedience classes for the year started last week, and it's been a bit hectic. Plus, my 14-year-old Schnauzer has been sick; we are afraid he is going into kidney failure (diabetes was ruled out) because he is drinking tons and peeing tons and cannot always get comfortable. It doesn't sound like much, but he's nearly blind, so taking him out every hour is a challenge. We have an appointment Saturday for bloodwork. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I have had 2 retrieving sessions with the Dervinator since I wrote last; one was on the 15th, and the latest was Sunday the 22nd. The first did not end well, but that was totally my fault.
January 15th
All the other dogs are outside, and Derv and I are in the living room alone. I figure, why not? I get the supplies and she gets revved up. I sit on the sofa and drop the dowel at my feet. She spins around a few times and tries a few tricks. When nothing works, she decides to pick up the dowel. C/T. I toss it down again, and this time she picks it up and brings it to my hand, which I am holding about a foot off the ground, palm open. We are now back where we left off, albeit in a different (and larger) venue. So far, so good. She is not leashed.
After a few successes, I toss the dowel a few feet away. She brings it back. Then, I set it up on the edge of the couch. She doesn't see me do so, and looks around for it. Then she spies it. She leaps up on the couch and grabs for it, but it falls. She leaps down, and I grab it and put it back on the couch. Again she jumps up there, and this time gets a hold of it, but cannot get back off the couch with it in her mouth. She keeps dropping it. She clearly doesn't understand the "hold."
I finally grab it and we go back to the floor stuff. I get a couple of successes, still with my hand open and waiting, and then I get bold. I throw it about 10 feet away, into the kitchen. She dashes in there, starts to pick it up, and then leaves it to come back towards me. I ignore her and continue to stare at it on the kitchen floor. My hand is prepared to receive.
She goes back in there, picks it up, and brings it to me! Woo hoo! She gets several treats for that. I decide to try one more...
What was I thinking? My throw gets wedged partly under the edge of the fridge. Dang! She grasps it, but when she meets resistance, she lets go. She looks at me. I tell her to "get it." (I have not given her ANY verbal instruction yet in any of our sessions except "take it" when I cheated and put it up to her lips the first time.) She tries again. It appears stuck. I'm excited that's she has not given up yet, but I don't know if that's because of the pending treat, or because she wants the dowel.
I am fidgeting. I want soooo badly to help her, but I don't. It's not unretrieveable. I wait.
She runs back toward me with that look..."what do you want me to do?" "Go get it," I tell her.
She goes back, grasps it firmly, and wrests it out from under the fridge! What a good dog! I am thrilled and I praise her.
Is that where I mess up? She heads 3 or 4 steps in my direction with it still in her mouth, and then I see my successes melt away. When she gets to the kitchen door, she turns right with it and runs off to the other end of the room, behind me, where she drops it. I feel like Charlie Brown...."aaaauuuuuugggghhhh!" Game over!
Yes, it is my fault. She should have been leashed; she wouldn't have run off. I shouldn't have thrown it so far and created (unwittingly) an obstacle to the retrieve yet. I smack myself, and get up and get the dowel from the chair across the room. Derv has reverted to running about, and has forgotten about it. Session is over.
Time for a beer...or something a bit more stiff. I'm such a ding-dong. I KNEW better. This dog is too smart for this game.
January 22
Sigh...back to the dang bathroom. I have to see if she remembers the game. She does. We have success, even with throws. There's hardly any room to screw up in here.
She perform perfectly as long as my hand is in receptive position. If it is not out, she takes the dowel off to the side and either drops it or chews it. This isn't good.
We do about 10 repeats, then quit. It's time to check the rules again and see the next step, though I really want to work on "hold." It is a problem, and I feel like if I could get that fixed, things would progress quicker.
I definitely think she is enjoying the game, though I doubt she thinks I am in control. She's just humoring me.
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