Another Night at Dog School

Last night was session five of Emme's dog school. We worked on duration, distance, and distractions. For duration, the trainer said to put your dog in a down position and wait to click and treat for three seconds. Then extend the time to five seconds, then ten, and then work up to a whole minute. Emme does stay in a down position when I am cooking in the kitchen. I am sure she stays a minute or longer at a time. Next distance: we are to stand in front of the dog in a down position and then take one step back, return and click and treat. Then try two steps, three steps, up to ten steps. I think Emme also does this because when I am preparing food, I am all over the kitchen, not just directly in front of Emme.

The last D was distractions. We are to try all the commands with distractions such as training outside. Emme does NOT do this. When she is outside, I could be talking Chinese for all the good the commands do. She is so busy smelling the pachysandra, watching someone mowing a lawn, listening to outside sounds, that I could be invisible. When she accidentally does something right and I click to tell her "Good job." She is so distracted; she doesn't even hear the clicker. Emme has no resistance to distractions. Inside, she works like a champ. Outside, she reverts to no discipline, no training, and no skills. We have a lot of work to do.