Opportunity Training

I am a planner.  I have a spreadsheet for everything.  I've even considered a spreadsheet to keep track of my spreadsheets...seriously.

So, it shouldn't surprising that I have a spreadsheet for Rogue; a training plan.

Last night I realized that there are times that training opportunities arise that I should take advantage of, even if they aren't on the plan yet.

Last night, as Rogue and I worked around the house and yard, I was talking to her.  I would see her go potty and I would say "Good Girl, Hurry up" (Hurry Up is, for whatever reason, the phrase I have used when I let Ike out...and it has stuck).

When we were inside and I went upstairs or downstairs, Rogue would fillow me and I would say, "Good Girl, Downstairs".  These are some of the commands that I have used with Ike and since she is doing the act, it just made sense to start rewarding her and introducing her to the command.  There was no correction, no negative reinforcement.  If she did something, I pointed it out and statted the command several times.

Likewise, when she went in her kennel, I would say, "Good Girl, Kennel"...of course then she would get out of her kennel and come over by me...but over time I think she will get the connection.

Ike is a Retriever and so we spent some time throwing Frisbees and tennis balls last night.  Rogue was interested, so we tried it with her and her 50 foot training lead.

The first few times, she didn't return to me, so I guided her back on her lead while remaining upbeat and excited.  After a couple of throws, she was returning back to me 75% of the time.

The coolest thing was that the very first time I told her "Drop it", she did.  All I can imagine is that she learned this from watching me with Ike.

We also found out she likes to try and catch the ball when thrown to her, so we did this some as well.  Again, accuracy wasn't great, she probably caught less than 10% of the balls we tossed to her (short distance, maybe 3 or 4 yards away from her), but she like the game.

So, while I have a specific command planed for each week, we are going a little off script and doing this will, hopefully, keep things interesting for Rogue too.