Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Doggy Summer School




Just because Dog school is out for the summer does not mean its time for m to neglect Rockets education or stop teaching him new things. I have a book 101 Dog Tricks To Teach Your Dog that illustrates many, many things I could teach him if I wanted him to have the skills. Many,many of the tricks feature skills I do not want him to learn! Rocket is smart enough to weaponize a skill set so I have to be careful about what I teach him.

This weekend when my father and I were taking apart the dryer I decided to keep the tub because in it I saw greatness!



Looks pretty awesome doesn't it?! You just have to see the potential. The potential for teaching the dog a new agility skill/dog trick!



Because to me it looks like a Dog Trick Opportunity! I have read my book and watched a couple of videos on dog barrel walking and I think this is something that Rocket can learn to do. He is very agile, he has excellent balance, he learns quickly and he is treat motivated. These are all pre-reqs for this trick.


Rocket meets the barrel.

We spent a few minutes letting him sniff it and play tunnel through the center. He loves tunnels! Then I started to treat him when he put his feet on it. I need to be able to lock the barrel in place better so I'm going to repourpose a couple of cinder blocks to act as stops for it. I want to get him comfortable getting on it before I introduce him to it moving. We did a little of that today but not much. he did however get a lot of treats for getting his feet and upper body on the barrel. He at one point sat on it!

He would roll it a little but he didn't under stand the whole "push it forward" part and I wasn't going to push for "climb up there and propel it" either at this point. We'll get there.


Good Boy!

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