Bumps in the road...

Well, training-wise we have hit A LOT of bumps. Both with Indi and Ernie. The first problem that has started is Ernie's obsession with animal holes whether that be rat holes, rabbit holes, fox dennes or badger holes. He has become obsessed and will go 'deaf' when he gets a scent of one and won't focus on me or anything else at all. I wouldn't mind this, as he is a rat dog, but as the only place we can practice agility and tricks is filled with holes this is a bit of a problem. It is partly my fault as last weekend Ernie found a hole and was really interested in it, he's never been before. So, as he is a rat dog, I decided to put him on the lead and let him have a peek in. Probably not the best idea, but after a week he is learning that I am more interesting than the holes. The first and second days of training were a nightmare but now its starting to get better. Today we did some agility on our logs, and some tricks and he completely ignored the holes which was great!

With Indi we have hit a bump in the road that I have never ever seen in any other dog or heard of in any other dog. Indi has become scared of the clicker, even though he's been clicker trained since he was 9 weeks old. It started when I started counter conditioning Ernie to not be scared of me blowing raspberries or blowing in his face. It worked really well for him, so I decided to give it a go with Indi. This was a bad idea. At first he was fine and just looked at me oddly and then ate the treat, but after a few goes he started running to the door when I blew and clicked. Then when I called him back and gave him a treat he spat it out. With counter conditioning most dogs would associate the bad thing with a good thing, hence the bad thing becoming good. It's worked for every dog I've seen been taught this way, including Ernie, but with Indi it had the opposite effect. Instead he associated the good thing with the bad, and so became scared of the good thing. Even when I was clicker training with Ernie, he ran to the door. I guess we've got a little challenge ahead of us. That's the problem with owning such a nervous, sensitive dog you have to be so careful but hopefully we will beat this fear, as the clicker is definantly something I don't want him to be scared of!

Other than that not much to report! I finally have a new video of Indi and Ernie's tricks! Oh and some agility on our log! I also have another video in the making, because its Ernie's birthday very very soon! I can't believe he's going to be 3! So, a video to mark the occasion!

Well heres a pic taken today of Ernie down the field! I took Lola and Ernie for a long hour and half one after school and it was fantastic! The weather was beautiful, both dogs had great fun and I finished filming for my video!