Margot Brennan: November 2019 -- Day One

We were very pleased to welcome this fun, energetic girl into training today! It's her first day here so we'll take things slowly at first but it's clear from the start, she adjusts pretty quickly to new environments.

After exploring the environment a bit, we got right into warming up on name recognition and attention. Name recognition just tells her to look at us when we say her name. It's helpful when we need her attention or when we are going to ask her to do something. Attention helps her maintain eye contact when there are distractions present.

I say her name once and reward eye contact. If I don't get eye contact, I try not to repeat her name. Instead, I make some noise or lure her eye contact to mine to get it. I want her to learn she needs to respond the first time I say her name.

Once she's doing in nicely with no distractions, I'll let her get a little distracted and try again.

We're slowly building up he ability to respond in more distracting environments. We definitely want her warmed up before she meets the other dogs, too.

While there are few distractions out here, I'm also going to warm up on her recall (coming when called). I start out not too far from her before I call her. I'm nice and clear with my cue, "Margot, come!"

As she is coming towards me, I cheer her on.

When she gets to me, I reward her with one tiny but tasty treat after the other.

I want her to really understand how rewarding this recall can be.

Then I practice when she's a little bit distracted.

She threw herself beside me. That works just fine. I'm not picky at this point, I just want her to come to me quickly.

We'll eventually shape that into a sit in front of me. She'll get rewarded a lot in this position this week as we work through her excitable greetings.

Jumping on me gets a quick turn of my back but sitting to greet me gets her treats, attention, and praise.

Ok, now we are ready to meet the other dogs but we'll do it one at a time. It's less overwhelming that way so she has a better experience...

But it also gives me an opportunity to slowly increase the distraction level. So I"m going to continue with those same name recognition, attention, and recall exercise with this new distraction.

And then I'll let her go play again.

By doing this, I'm not only teaching her to pay attention and respond to me but I'm also teaching her to quickly go from a high energy state to a controlled state.

Her reward for that self-control is treats but also getting to go play again.

She has nice play skills and eagerly invites the other dog to play with a play bow.

When I'm practicing recalls in this higher distraction level, I can get closer to her before calling her to help her be successful.

We want to set her up for success so we can reward the correct behavior more often which helps her learn more quickly.

If she's learning or she's done a recall particularly well, I reward multiple times (one right after the other, not all at one time).

As she improves, I can move a little farther away before calling her.

I'm still close enough that I could go get a treat under her nose and lure her to me if she doesn't respond but no need to do that this time. She responded right away.

By starting out in easier environments, we're able to condition the behavior so she can start to respond in increasingly more challenging environments.

We want her eager to get to us no matter what.

On to the next dog, again just one at a time. A new distraction is harder but having multiple dogs out at the same time plus a new dog increases that distraction level considerably.

But it doesn't take us long before we're out with the whole group. It's normal for her to check out the other dogs since she doesn't know them well. If she were nervous, I would get the other dogs' attention like this to allow her to check them out without the dogs approaching.