Monday, September 14, 2009

DAY 14 and RECALL

DAY 14: The video shows a recall "off-leash" (Crosby is running free, dragging the leash), with an expectation that the dog will remain in the hock position once he is called. As you can see, Crosby understands the call to "hock", but does not yet understand that he is supposed to remain in that position once called. He DOES fall right into position, however, once I get the horse going faster (trot). Crosby is much better at hocking when the horse is trotting. It's an instinct. No walk on the flexi today – not enough time. I had to go to Williston and buy more shingles and be home by 1 PM, so after pottying the dogs, I just saddled up and headed out for Seven Sisters. Crosby was allowed to run off leash (dragging the leash) for most of the ride. He was on leash for the first mile or so – in the town of Crane (dirt roads), but once we got over the railroad tracks and between the corn fields, I let him go. He did respond to the come, but he didn’t stay at hock after the come, until I started to trot. When I trot the horse, Crosby just automatically falls into hock and stays with me. The “dragging the leash” thing is not working so well for me. If Crosby were a horse, I would say he “doesn’t respect my personal space”. Actually, Crosby does not respect ANYONE’s personal space. This is not a bad thing – as a matter of fact, show dogs are usually trained to “ask for it”, so I shouldn’t be surprised. It would not be a problem at all, except he doesn’t respect THE HORSE’s PERSONAL SPACE. In other words, Crosby is not afraid of the horse at all! Crosby’s preferred position when he was “off-leash” (dragging the leash) today was IN FRONT of the horse. The problem is, when the horse gets close to Crosby, the horse steps on the leash, which stops Crosby’s forward motion, and puts him at risk of being stepped on! It was a REAL problem today. I let the horse have his head, so he could put his head down and breathe on Crosby’s back (that’s what Shadow does when a dog is right in front of him), but Crosby wasn’t even bothered by that. And of course, if the horse is that close, and the horse steps on the leash – well, there’s that risk again of being stepped on, and not being able to get out of the way due to the leash. In the past, with my dogs, I’ve ridden with a dressage crop so I can tap the dogs to make them get back, or get in a better position. I’m going to have to start riding with a crop so I can warn Crosby to get out of the way. I just can’t afford to let him go with no leash at all yet. I still need a “crutch”, or something I can grab if I have to run him down. Today, without a crop to tap Crosby, I had to watch him every minute and there was a lot of stop and go, so the horse wouldn’t step on Crosby. A crop presents its own problems – not only is it ONE MORE THING I have to hang on to, but if the dog becomes afraid of the crop, the dog then hocks too wide, or is always trying to avoid the crop. Maybe I need to do some more work on the ground at the CD level, so that Crosby learns to heel off leash with a tab on or a shark line, instead of dragging the leash. I just can’t have the horse stepping on the leash! Today we didn’t walk our 1.2 miles on the flexi, but we did do the loop in Seven Sisters, and so Crosby did 6 miles on horseback. It was pretty hot, too. Probably about 80 degrees by 9 AM. Crosby held up very nicely. Even at the end of the ride, he was always out in front (as opposed to my 11 year old bitch, who lags behind). After the horse ride, I took Crosby with me in the car to Williston to get the shingles, so that I could stop at a park on the way home and practice Rally in a new setting. It was VERY HOT by the time we got to the park, and we practiced in the sun. Crosby was great! Very nice responses, although he was slow to put his elbows down on the down! Only two more days of practice before he competes in Rally!

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