It doesn’t happen very often, but I had all of Sunday morning to myself. I wanted to take Freighter to one of our local parks where we don’t normally train to proof his heeling on lead.
He has been doing a great job on our neighborhood walks so I thought it was time to venture out. The park that I picked is long and narrow and is surrounded by houses. It has an asphalt bike path that rings the edges.
I did not get to the park until about 10:30 or so and by then it was starting to get warm because there wasn’t much of a breeze and it was a bright sunny day.
I avoided the path and stuck to the grass. I knew the smells of a new place would be very interesting to Freighter. I was not wrong. I spent a good part of the walk trying to discourage sniffing.
Yes, I know I am a meanie head, but my walk-my rules. After Freighter’s terrible line manners at the hunt test the day before, he will be working a lot on paying attention to his person and walking at heel despite distractions. We also found some shady spots and worked on Freighter’s sits.
We saw some interesting things at the park. A kid was on a skateboard using a long pole to propel himself along. Freighter couldn’t take his eyes off the kid. Along with some runners, and other people walking dogs, there was also a guy on a bike with a little dog in a basket.
That guy must have peddled past us 4 or 5 times.
Every time he rode past I got this:
And this:
Even with a treat in my hand I could not hold his attention for any length of time unless I stood right on top of him.
Obviously we need to get out to some more parks and work on Freighter’s attention span.
Last but not least, a cute picture of Nestle. If ever I can’t find her, she is usually curled up in this bed my Dad gave to her after his kitty went to the Bridge in June.
This is the Thursday Bark And Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like A Dog.
The Barks And Bytes hop is for anything at all and all bloggers are welcome. You don’t have to be a dog blog to join. Why not try it out!
For new blog hoppers, a blog hop is a linky list that is shared on multiple blogs. In order to be fair to all participants we ask you to please display the linky list or link back to your hosts.
Hi! I love that smile on Freighter’s face in the last picture! Amazing what a dog will do for a treat!! 🙂
Freighter is all about treats, except when a duck is involved. 🙂
Fortunately Freighter is a good guy… I bet if Easy would see the biker, he would sit in that basket too within 2 minutes :o) I always remember the video I saw on your blog with the “switch on&out” lesson, I tried to work with Easy that way, it works not always but I think it’s the right way to get his attention :o) many thanks again for sharing this video.
We are going to be working more on that ourselves. Freighter has no off switch at tests. lol
The trials and tribulations of park life. If there are squirrels around all manners go out of the window here. Have a tremendous Thursday.
Best wishes Molly
Then you understand what we have at hunt tests. Freighter is interested in squirrels but nuts for ducks.
Wow, I hear ya with that dog in a basket stuff. Not sure about the guy you saw but the couple Mich and I saw on a recent run (meaning Mich forcing me to run instead of walk ;-)) did not look like the dog was very safe and that dog definitely wanted to jump out and play with Mich. Obviously Mich and Freighter’s days of fitting in bike baskets are long gone but I do think owners of small dogs should think twice about putting a 4-6 pound dog in a basket at the height of large dogs’ vision. I always like when you write about safety with dogs and I thought of you when I saw that little yippy dog in the floppy bike basket the other day.
I agree and this guy had something to say every time around to further draw attention to himself. Made it easy to work on distractions. 🙂
Hi Y’all!
When my Human first got me, even though I was a show dog, I used to leap straight in the air and scream whenever I saw another dog or person in front of me on a trail. Lookin’ around doesn’t sound so awful to me. 😉
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
LOL Hawk. I bet that was a sight. The thing with Freighter is he can tend to totally tune out his person if he gets over stimulated (like at a test) so we are working on teaching him to pay attention.
Hi Y’all,
What Hawk didn’t say was he also did it when he entered the room for training class. The instructor was never amused.
One of the exercises we did was take turns putting one dog in the center of a circle, sitting with his/her handler, with all the other dogs circling and then reversing and circling.
Freighter’s problem sounds like his super strong drive to retrieve overwhelms him, so all training goes out the window when faced with a retrieve.
Good luck,
BrownDog’s Human
Maybe you could work with Bailie too? She is all sniff and not much paying attention, no matter what! Mom is a softy and feels compelled to let her sniff a lot, so it will be a long time until she gets the sniffing out of her walk, if ever. We aren’t big on heal here so that is the good news, but we are supposed to pay attention, listen, not pull and stay fairly close.
Maybe someday Freighter can have more freedom on walks but he can tend to go into auto pilot (especially at tests) and ignore who ever is walking him so for now he has to heel correctly. The thing is, in the show ring he does a great job, so I think it is just a matter of practicing and being consistent.
Isn’t it nice to spend time one on on with them. Looks like you two had a great time. That pic of nestle is So sweet
If he washes out of hunt test, may have to try obedience. 🙂
Oh man, we could use your help with Mr. K. He sniffs everything! Our walks take forever lately. Keep up the good work with Freighter! Much love, The Scottie Mom.
I just love Freighter. He always looks so nonchalant.
I think it’s great to work with distractions, most of the times that is what I am working on during our walks.
Thanks for joining the blog hop. 😉
Freighter says “You could put ME in a basket, you know.”
Working on the attention span of a dog while out in public is amazing; it seems like when you set your mind out to do it all sort of really strange things start to appear, like the guy on the bike with the dog.
I don’t know if it’s just because I’m more attentive while training that I notice it or if it is some weird phenomenon. Last time I went out to work on Laika’s attention we were met by 4 people walking 4 baby goats that were all wearing collars with bells on them. That was within the first 5 minutes. I suppose it’s good; the next time we encounter a gang of baby goats she won’t be nearly as surprised.
Luke is the exact same way on a walk, and I keep forgetting to bring treats to work with him! He also adds eating grass to the fun distractions. I was hoping he was going to outgrow the short attention span thing….now I wonder!
That’s a nice little bed for Nestle…it looks very cozy. Samantha won’t often sleep in pet beds, but Conrad loves to curl up in one.
Great post…and I now have a new title. “meanie head” I’m quite certain that my Toby agrees with your Freighter. LOL!
Sweet Freighter were you wondering why you were not being ridden around in a basket or where your skateboard was? lol You will get that attention span honed soon we bet, there was just too many new and interesting things to see at the park. Hugs and nose kisses
The attention span is pretty weak here too. Lots and lots of practice!
I can only imagine how hard it is to stay focused at the park, especially with a guy on a bike with a puppy in a basket!
Donna is awful in new environments… I guess I have sort of been encouraging it too since I just let her explore the new places and have her fun, gets her less distracted after when I want her to do something there 😛 … maybe I should start growing a meanie head too… x_x
I occasionally take the guys to the sporting goods or farm supply store with me, which helps with distractions. But then, as with the kid on a skateboard and pole, there are just some things out of the ordinary that need a close inspection.
Sounds like Freighter actually did pretty good, as compared to Maya and Pierson. I need to get them out more often too.
A spen has be doing great training at home. We have sit, down, sit from down position. Sit stay and down stay – he is amazing patient. And he doesn’t pull for me always loose leash. Biting is main problem cutting teeth. He will be 2 months aug. 2. Get his shots on the 4th and start formal classes on Aug. 11. I’m sure he will forget everything when he see’s all those new dogs 😉 good luck Freighter:)