Clicker madness

Having been at work most of the weekend and doing exciting things like laundry and dishes at home instead of playing with Bethena and Iggy, I tried to appease my conscience by doing a little practicing today before they had to go into the kennel run at work....

Bethena and I started; we did a little targeting first, no great shakes there. Then a little retrieving and she managed to retrieve, sit, and hold tho she is clearly showing signs of being impatient that anyone could do that and it is so boring and why should she have to a) actually go all the way to the dumbbell before bringing it back, b) sit, and c) hold the dumbbell for any length of time at all after she returns to me when d) EVERYONE should be able to see that she knows how to do it, so why does she have to keep proving it????

Adding the clicker to the finished exercise helped, tho I didn't think of that til pretty late in the process. It REALLY helped with drop-on-down tho, and she started to get the idea of a fast drop fairly quickly (she used to seem to understand that, but then she lost it).

It probably sounds like she and I spent hours doing things but it was really only about 5 minutes.

Iggy then had a turn, also fairly short session, and he did AWESOME. We tried off-lead heeling for the first time and after one or two mis-steps, he got it perfectly. He is so smart! He's also SO different than Bethena. Instead of always trying to find something new to do, it makes him happy to get rewards and praise for the things he can do, whereas Bethena lives for the reaction she evokes in her audience.

Iggy is starting to understand "finish" so maybe we'll end up doing some Novice B work this summer after all. Bethena isn't ready for open, but she can tag along just like Iggy did when she was doing her novice trials.