Oddjob loves being involved in everything. He also loves climbing on top of things. I have added to this love by rewarding him for getting onto a box as part of the foundation training I do.
You can not put anything down without him climbing onto the top of it, looking very proud and waiting for a reward.
Moving a chest of drawers from the garage to upstairs was challenging as I'd turn round to see he had climbed onto a drawer I had put down. I absentmindedly placed a pile of 3 drawers on top of each other only to hear a clatter and turn round to see Oddjob valiantly standing on top of the fallen pile :)
We are still working through some basic foundation training - mainly circlework, waiting and playing (specifically tug).
Circlework is where I want him to stay in a heel position while I go round a 5m circle. He is fine on the right hand side. He struggles on the left as he wants to circle himself. Mark thinks he needs to do it to tighten up his tail curl. On that side I can only walk and reward every single step at the moment to keep his position. Like a pug I have my stubborn moments so I will continue to work on this.
Waiting is great in a crate and if I do it's your choice type games dropping treats in front on him so I know he has some understanding of it. What we haven't got understanding of yet is if I walk away. The will to be close enough in case I have a reward for him is too great. Slowly slowly is going to be the key. I am going to extend the length of time I ask him to wait more before I go back to trying to walk away. 5 seconds close by seems nothing but if every second takes me further away you can see why it gets harder. I will aim for 20 seconds before I try distance. I have been told that it may not be worth getting him to wait on the start line in agility. that may become the case but I would like to crack the behaviour away from agility first. If I don't need it thats fine but if I do it is easier for the dog to know the behaviour away from the equipment first.
Playing has always been a struggle I have with my dogs. I seem to turn them off the behaviour then have to do loads of work to get it back so it is not because of him being a different breed. What I have to keep reminding myself is that when I get the play it is with me - not with the toy. Torro and Rhyme will turn and jump up at me immediately they get a toy and want me to tug rather than running off to enjoy the toy for its own worth.
Kodi loved all toys and would run off to play on his own. Getting the toy back took up valuable training time and discouraged us from using toy rewards as much I we would have like to.
Treats make for such quick turn over of training. Action treat treat eaten in a second action again etc. This may work in some environments. In Agility we need our dogs to be fired up and wanting to have fun with us. It is a game. The more we include play the more we will be able to get out of our dogs.
Play is usually interpreted as tug as it takes 2 and brings in natural instincts. Don't forget any physical interaction can be play. For agility relationships the key is the interaction needs to be between the dog and handler.
Well I will continue to teach Oddjob to tug for those very reason.
Meanwhile like many people I am tempted to progress to some agility equipment training. So being a bit impatient and wanting to keep physical interaction I devised a cunning plan on the straight line jump grids.
As mentioned Oddjob loves climbing onto things. He also likes jumping into things. The previous owner left a low feed bucket which is ideal for pug jumping into. I rewarded any time he jumped in the bucket for a few days. Then put it at the end of a jump grid. We started with the last jump and into the bucket and back chained to doing 5 jumps now. Once in the bucket he immediately looks to me for a reward so although it is a little cheat he is still working for me.
I am not watching his jump action as my focus is the bucket ready to verbally praise once he is there but Mark has seen him and says he bounces beautifully.
We have only done this a couple of times and I will leave this now for a while as he doesn't need to do too much jumping. I'm disappointed I didn't get Mark to video though.
I did get Oddjob to pose in his new coat though
