STAR PUPPY CLASS TONIGHT

STAR PUPPY Class tonight 
After class we worked on new obstacles which will count towards not only her LEVEL 3 CONTACT and THROUGH for Dog Scouts but are great body awareness exercises.   We tried the teeter as well but she showed me we need to go back to some rear end awareness exercises for her as she had no clue where her butt was or that she could put her back feet on the object.  She just walked it sideways for the most part.    She hadn't worked on any of these before tonight and after just a few reps - she had it!  Good girl!

DINNER MINI SESSION

We have been working on a few things today - one of which is changing Luna over to an older hand signal I used to use for SIT all the time, which is just a palm up motion. This is worked much better for her and her response has gone from being 45-50% to about 90% reliable.

She is also working with Fizz loose in the room learning to ignore distractions, learning FREE which is one of her release cues and learning to differentiate between cues.  For instance if I ask for a TOUCH or KENNEL and she offers a DOWN, she has to listen to and work out what I actually wanted.

Then there is the actual body work.  SIT to a lot of dogs means - put your rear end on the ground.  But what if they are in a DOWN?  Their rear is already on the ground, so what then?  They often have no idea what you are talking about.

I teach SIT as a body position to be in - that it is not important how they got there.  So she will be able to SIT from both a STAND or a DOWN, DOWN from both a SIT and a STAND, and STAND from both SIT and DOWN.  I want her to understand the concept in multiple contexts - not just SIT = rear end goes down.

CANINE BODY AWARENESS EXERCISES

I have briefly mentioned this before but I wanted to take a minute to talk about the importance of body awareness and canine conditioning exercises in any dog - but especially in working dogs of all types - whether that be dogs sports, farm life or especially service work that has physical components like Luna will be doing.

It is vital that we keep their bodies at the right weight and muscular development but also challenge them physically as well as mentally to build stronger core muscles, better immunity, flexibility and endurance.  There are tons of products to help with this like the FitPAWS range.

Fenzi Dog Sport Academy offers a class on it:
https://fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses/899

And a good article on conditioning and awareness applications to agility work although it applies across the board:  https://www.petcha.com/full-body-awareness-in-agility/

One of the simplest exercises to start this with is just a body rotation / spin circles trick.  We ask them to spin their body in both directions on cue.  This is great for spinal flex, balanced muscle development, rear end awareness and can be a great reset behavior for low stress repetitions between other exercises.  And most dogs love to do it...Gryph thinks it is great fun!

And now Luna is learning it!