Mason Obedience Class #3
Yes it’s been two weeks since I last posted but I was feeling sickly for the last class so we didn’t go. Week three tasks are to sit and wait for toys, sit and wait for meals, and sit and wait to go outside. Luckily, Mason has mastered all of these for quite awhile now so we could continue to practice his atrocious “Down” command. The eye contact thing he has down really well. Looking ahead, next week is on controlled walking and walking nicely on a leash - something else he is really horrible at. So, this class after we got tired of practicing the Down command and the Look command, Eric practiced walking him around the room.
These were taken with our cell phone, so they aren’t very good, sorry.
They start off in the Sit position. Mason is looking to Eric for direction, that is really good.
Then they start the trek around the room. Mason is still looking attentatively at Eric, very, very good.
You might think with all the dogs/people Mason would be distracted…nope. BUT, if a dog left a bit of treat on the floor, he could NOT focus until he licked it up. He’s a porker haha.
Things went a tad downhill from here. This sit/walk/stop/sit is all in the form of Musical Chairs, they stopped/started with the music.
Here you can see Mason anticipating that he’s going to get a treat for stopping and sitting on cue (he’s looking at Eric’s hand):
He’s also breaking the sit as soon as the treat is presented, instead of waiting for the next cue to move:
Things we need to work on: weaning him off of treats because he’s starting to refuse to do behavior with only the reinforcement of praise - not good, making sure he stays in his sit regardless of if he’s being treated or not, and of course the Down command.