Gypsy's First Session

tx_cowgirl

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
So today was my first day to work with Gypsy, as my dog, instead of a client's. :) I had full intentions of recording it, but decided I needed to focus fully on getting to know her learning style and I was so excited that recording it didn't cross my mind. xD

Anyway...
We went over come, which she already somewhat knew. We really need to advance it, mostly. She understands the command but needs to work with distractions.
We also went over spin and turn, which she already knew completely, just wanted to give her a refresher to make sure she was paying attention.
We started weave, as she gets bored with simple tricks and sometimes just needs to do something more active. This went well and I think a couple more sessions and she'll have it.
We started targetting--she found this a little bit confusing at first, but in just a minute or so she had caught on pretty well.
We worked on down from a sit and sit from a down. Also went well.
We worked on leave it and taking treats nicely, which I started the first day I worked with her with her previous owner. She is extremely crazy about food and has trouble focusing on anything but food, so this is crucial for her training. I'm putting a ton of emphasis on eye contact because she has major problems with focusing. She has made huge strides since the first day I worked with her with her previous owner, but we have a long way to go.
Stay is very important and also very difficult for her, so we started that.

Today's session was a bit sporatic but I just wanted to get a feel for what she could pick up well and what was going to take lots of work. The only new stuff for her is down, weave, and stay, and learning her new name; the rest is all advancing cues she's already learned.

All in all it was a pretty good session, and by the end she was actually calm enough that I got a picture that wasn't a grey blur. :D I'll post it as soon as I can get it to my computer. :)
 
sara

sara

Moderator
Staff member
Awe, sounds like you had a blast! I LOVE starting a new dog! It's soooo exciting! Good job Gypsy(y)
 
tx_cowgirl

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
SUPER BRAG that I hadn't posted yet on here, but it was the same day.

When she still belonged to a client, we did a little bit of work initially on recall, but really only maybe two sessions. Not sure how much her owner worked on it but honestly I don't think it was much after those two sessions. She had four dogs, all of whom she was working with at the same time, and her bf ruined a lot of the stuff she worked so hard on. Anyway...well I worked on recall in her first session being mine the other day when I posted this. Later that day, all three dogs were playing in the yard and I just decided to test her. (I know, it was dumb...one session with me and then testing her under such extreme consequences...playing with two other dogs....what was I thinking?) Nonetheless, I called her. I was expecting nothing. Nothing at all. Not even a glance in my direction.
Instead I was ASTONISHED, completely stunned. In the middle of running towards the other dogs, she spun around, ran straight to me, and sat at my feet.
:eek::eek::eek::LOL:O_o:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: *faint*
Lol. And I didn't even have any treats on me, which made this decision of mine even STUPIDER, what an idiot I was!!! But I thew a huge party for her, tons of praise, looooots of petting, playing with her, just super exciting since she left such an exciting situation to come to me instead. Then off she went again to play with the other dogs. Shame on me, I got lucky the first time, why on Earth would I try again? Well, because I'm human, and humans are greedy. I called her again.
Again she spun around and ran straight to me and sat at my feet. HOLY COW THIS DOG IS SMART! Tons of praise again and all kinds of excitement to make it rewarding for her. Off she went again to play with her new buddies.
One last time.....I called her again, in the middle of playing with Mud and Z, and again flawless recall! I was stupid enough to try it once, twice, three times, but smart enough to stop there. xD Still can't believe I even tried this, but I am just AMAZED and so proud that her recall is already so incredible after so little training.
Since then it's now something I'm actually incorporating into our training(with better rewards, of course!). I thought it'd be too early for this but she continues to show me she can handle it!

Loving working with Gypsy. :love: She's fitting in so well with Mud and Z too. Everyone's happy and doing great.
 
tx_cowgirl

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
Another tough one tackled...
Sitting still is really an enormous feat for Gypsy. It's just super hard for her. When you think she's actually going to sit still for 2 seconds, something(or nothing) catches her eye across the room and she flings her head around to look at it.
She's a nut, just a crazy nut. :rolleyes: Lol.
Anyway, so obviously "stay" is a challenge. Yesterday we worked on it some and she was actually able to stay for 14 seconds!
HOLY SMOKES! :ROFLMAO: Of course we worked up to this but staying that long is great for her. Of course she wasn't completely still; her feet were planted but she had the occasional head twitch--(Wait what was that across the room I might be missing???), but she did stay in place so I was happy with that. She has a very good understanding of her release word. We're also working on down from sit, down from stand, sit from down, stand from down, and stand from sit. Weave is proving to be just a bit tough for her; she will go through both directions just fine individually, but putting them together....all bets are off! Lol, poor girl, she's a bit dense on some things. Putting two and two together is not her specialty, but she'll get there.
 
fly30

fly30

Experienced Member
She looks very concentrated :) Well done for all this work, she seems to be a clever dog.
 
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