8 months 15 days
2011/10/07
Thomas Brezinski, my nephew, is here from Toronto making a documentary about our family. This has included following me and Syn to the lake, to the water trial, to class, and today, out to a park near the university to film her doing various cute behaviours. I hope to have links to some of his footage of the dogs soon. It's amazing what a difference a decent camera, someone who knows how to use it, and a monopod make to video!
Oh, it was a perfect trip! We drove to the park. Syn and I got out (leaving Thomas to carry the camera, bags, and other equipment across the parking lot and field) and started walking to the spot he'd picked. Lazy Leash all the way, with no effort on my part. Syn was excited to be going somewhere new and excited about all the wonderful smells, but she was careful to keep the leash loose the entire time. She had one bad moment when we arrived. There was a large sculpture made up of long lengths of pipe, maybe 20 feet tall (that wasn't her problem). Her problem was a large pale rock near the sculpture, sitting all alone in the field. She was highly suspicious of it. She growled and barked at it, raising her hackles and glaring at it. I laughed at her and took a step back, asking her to look at me, sit, down. She did these things, but kept looking over her shoulder at the menacing rock. As this wasn't a major crisis, just a moderate suspicion, I kept laughing and walked closer to it. She ducked in behind me a bit but kept coming. She had stopped barking, which I took as a nice sign of her nearly trusting my opinion. When we got close enough, she cautiously stepped forward to sniff it, then relaxed. I asked her to jump up on it and she had no trouble giving me that. We don't have rocks in our soil here, so I'm sure this was the first person-sized rock she'd ever seen. Her bounce-back from little scares is amazing.
Then we sauntered casually around the area for a couple of minutes, giving Syn a chance to sniff. Still she kept the leash loose.
When Thomas arrived, I took the leash off and we worked on the Come Game, retrieving, Relax, and some shaping. Through it all, Syn responded just as she would have in the living room. Joggers and bicyclists went by, some with dogs, and the Flying Squirrel kept right on paying attention, right on eagerly playing the game. Gosh, does this training actually work?
Yes. Yes it does.
Oh, it was a perfect trip! We drove to the park. Syn and I got out (leaving Thomas to carry the camera, bags, and other equipment across the parking lot and field) and started walking to the spot he'd picked. Lazy Leash all the way, with no effort on my part. Syn was excited to be going somewhere new and excited about all the wonderful smells, but she was careful to keep the leash loose the entire time. She had one bad moment when we arrived. There was a large sculpture made up of long lengths of pipe, maybe 20 feet tall (that wasn't her problem). Her problem was a large pale rock near the sculpture, sitting all alone in the field. She was highly suspicious of it. She growled and barked at it, raising her hackles and glaring at it. I laughed at her and took a step back, asking her to look at me, sit, down. She did these things, but kept looking over her shoulder at the menacing rock. As this wasn't a major crisis, just a moderate suspicion, I kept laughing and walked closer to it. She ducked in behind me a bit but kept coming. She had stopped barking, which I took as a nice sign of her nearly trusting my opinion. When we got close enough, she cautiously stepped forward to sniff it, then relaxed. I asked her to jump up on it and she had no trouble giving me that. We don't have rocks in our soil here, so I'm sure this was the first person-sized rock she'd ever seen. Her bounce-back from little scares is amazing.
Then we sauntered casually around the area for a couple of minutes, giving Syn a chance to sniff. Still she kept the leash loose.
When Thomas arrived, I took the leash off and we worked on the Come Game, retrieving, Relax, and some shaping. Through it all, Syn responded just as she would have in the living room. Joggers and bicyclists went by, some with dogs, and the Flying Squirrel kept right on paying attention, right on eagerly playing the game. Gosh, does this training actually work?
Yes. Yes it does.