Sonic's first Christmas

Another Christmas is almost over with a very pleasant day had by all. Sonic came with me to Mum and Dad's for lunch and was an absolute pleasure to have around. Although the statue of the panther and the door stop border collie had to be covered over or removed because they were obviously up to no good and required a very stern telling off by Sonic...

I've been doing quite a bit with him of late, mostly because I've been watching lots of training DVD's and reading books so I've been feeling quite inspired. He has done his first V Shape jumps over the jump bumps and did very well. We've been doing a lot of work getting him to go to a stationary toy on the ground which is imperitive for the jump bump work. He is great at chasing a toy when you throw it but when it's placed on the ground and I send him too it he's been a bit unsure. However that is coming along quite well now. One of the DVD's I've been watching is Susan Garrett's "One Jump" exercises. When you watch her demonstrate with her dogs and you see just how well educated they are and how well they know their job it makes you realise just how much there is to teach! So much work to do, so little time... The one jump DVD actually has some interesting things I would like to try with Riot too so it will be interesting to experiment with him well before I get to that type of thing with Sonic. A lot of it is about building value for doing the jump work so I hope that Riot will really benefit from it.

I've also had the opportunity to try out some of the things I've read up on in "Control Unleashed". It talks about rewarding your dog for not paying attention to you which when you hear it sounds ridiculous but when I put it into practice it worked a treat. On Friday I had a workman come out to do some work on the roof. While he was here I had to let Sonic out for a wee. While Sonic was in the yard he took offence to this strange person wandering around on my roof and going up and down a ladder and went ballistic, alarm barking etc. So I dutifully grabbed a big container of Sonic's favourite treats, went outside and every time that Sonic looked at the man on the roof and went nuts I rewarded him. Within about 10 seconds he stopped barking and once he figured it out was actually offering eye contact to the scary man on the roof so he could get a treat from me. The barking and panic he was displaying had completely eliminated itself without any real effort on my behalf. In the past I would have gone out there and tried to get eye contact from him to distract him which I'm sure would have been a battle as he was really upset about the man on the roof. Instead I got the eye contact anyway because he would offer the behaviour of looking at the man and then look at me for his reward. It was a great moment and it was such a great feeling to totally diffuse a situation that could of had the potential to stay with Sonic if it was handled badly. As it was it became a totally positive exercise for all.

Unfortunately my training for the last couple of days has come to a halt as our real summer has finally reared it's ugly head. 40 degree plus days are definately not suitable for doing much other than lounging in the air conditioning!

And lastly, I am having a delima. Do I put Sonic on sheep or not??? When he is playing with my other dogs he is showing real herding potential. He has lovely shape with lovely wide flanks. He is strong on the head (just ask my cat) but also shows great cover. However I am reluctant to do sheep work as I don't want to encourage him to work wide of me when it comes to agility. Mmmm. Will have to meditate on it some more...