Since our pace was a bit behind, teacher decided to change our homework and scrap the ones that were too advanced for us. I guess I know where we went wrong. Beagle did really good with the mat exercises but not so much with perch work. Odie was the complete opposite, nailed the perch work, lagged behind with the mat.
Here's why we didn't get to practice much with the mat.
It happened during class. He was tasked to run toward the mat, which he did, and then he picked it up and ran all around the training venue. When he finally stopped, he shook his head while carrying the mat, which resulted in breaking it apart. I'm lucky he didn't eat parts of it! It took a while for me to find a substitute because the options were just too few. I ended up buying replacements in Eastwood. Bye, moneys.
We did what we could though, homework-wise. Here are our final requirements which we submitted the night before graduation.
Right now we're getting much better with the send to mat exercise. While filming the homework though he had sooooo many episodes of biting the mat, picking it up and playing with it, and trying to eat parts of it. He was able to tear off some of the thread so I put some duct tape to hold the damaged area in place. Take note, these were the newer mats so seeing one damaged kinda hurt. As for recalling to the mat, he's still a bit late in dropping to a down when I increase distance, so that needs a lot more work.
Odie is doing a lot better with the heel, most of the time even offering the behavior when he sees me holding treats. This is the desired end result of the perch work, if I understood our lessons correctly.
Lily Pad Stay was one of the games we had in class. Basically the dog just has to stay on one mat as the human moves the other mat to a different spot. It's a great test of focus, mostly because picking up, walking, and putting the mat somewhere else are more than enough distractions for a hyper beagle. He kept breaking to look at me doing what I was supposed to do. Pretty good watch dog, I must say. Or not!
Unfortunately, we weren't able to complete our homework tally sheet because of an accident that happened while we were filming homework outside of our house.
We were working on Recall with Heel outdoors that day so I clipped our long leash. I lured Odie to his starting spot, and when I turned around to walk 10 feet away, I saw a slim, white cat across the street. I immediately looked at Odie and saw him already fixated at the cat. Within a split second, he took off running toward the cat! I don't know what came over me. I stepped on the long leash for a while (which was what we're supposed to do anyway) but I felt that I was going to fall so I grabbed on to the leash with my hand. I suffered a couple of burns from the intense friction between my hand and the thin leash being pulled by a running dog. Was it painful? A bazillion times YES! But of course I still had to bring Odie back home and in his crate, bring my camera, treats, mats and perch inside the house, and then attend to my injured hand. I dressed my hand temporarily and drove to the drug store to get medicine and more bandages.
A broken mat, a broken hand, and a broken dog (Odie got gastroenteritis the day after graduation) were the challenges we had to get through in order to graduate. A week later, Odie graduated from his illness, and two weeks following the accident, my hand is bandage-free. I was also informed just recently of Odie's homework points and the prizes we can get with what he worked for. I think the real reward here though is the fact that I now have more options for Odie to release his energy! Having a hyper dog is NOT EASY. That's why I decided to take classes and really make time for Odie and I to learn how to not be enemies. I think we're handling it well so far.
Oh and okay, I forgive the cat for appearing out of nowhere.
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