Lemmy and I are taking Susan Garrett’s 5 Minute Formula for a Brilliant Recall, a 5 week online course. One of the core exercises of the course is Crate Games, which I was concerned about. I bought the DVD a month or two ago and was never able to get past “Yer Out Yer In” Lemmy never wanted to go back in the crate and when he did it was slow and sullen. Yesterday I watched the DVD again and geared up to give it another try. The one thing that I think made the difference this time is that I used a neutral crate. The last time I tried it I was using one of the 2 crates I had set up already, the one he slept in at night and the one he went in when I left the house. This time I brought in his travel crate and set it up in the family room, a place he had never been crated before. It went much smoother and he actually went back in the crate. Today when I was working the collar grab game as I released him to go back in the crate the cat chose that moment to jump the gate and run past him. Lemmy veered towards the cat and pounced on him, then immediately broke off and ran back in to the crate without any direction from me. I am so proud of him!
Training
Targeting
Who said whippets are hard to train? Check out Lemmy demonstrating targeting in the video below.
This is thanks to Marge Rogers, who is teaching us a lot in our Clicker Foundations class.
Clicker Foundations
Lemmy had his first Clicker Foundations class on Wednesday the 24th. He did very well, although the class is more about training me than him. We are working on the target stick, food zen, touch and eye contact.
New class for Lemmy
We just signed up for Clicker Foundations with the K-9 Obedience Club of Jacksonville, starting 11/17. See some video of the class and what they teach here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTdqHCx8n-Y I think Lemmy will LOVE this!