Adventures and retrieves

Fizz had a morning of adventure, and a lunch time of learning retrieve work. :)    We went to a local farm in Sherborn to pick up fresh eggs.   They have a petting area there for kids to go in and see the chickens, ducks and rabbits.   Fizz was able to go up to the fencing, and the animals were not in the least worried about her.   She showed active interest in the birds, but was not coming unglued.   I asked to her 'set up,' and then give me 3-4 steps of heeling.   She NAILED it! :) :)  GOOD GIRLIE!!!   She easily and happily left her cool feathered friends to come work with me, and we were all of 2 side-steps away from that fence.   Super happy about this! :)    She also got to see a few horses up close.   Again, actively interested, but not obnoxious, jumping, barking or otherwise alarming the horses.  

After the farm, we went to the bank.   All of my dogs have spent time in our bank, the folks who work there just adore dogs, and have always been most gracious to my Rottweilers.   Fizz got to experience automatic doors (the kind that open with a handicap button).   I decided these things absolutely ROCKED for working on 'not bolting out the door.'   Not that Fizz has that problem, we established sitting at doors at a young age.   BUT.....to be able to sit with your dog at a door, push the button, have the door open, and you and dog are still set up (and you are able to reward the good choice to hold the sit)......totally awesome!!   If I owned a training center, I'd have these installed for training purposes! :)

While in the bank, we worked on formal sit durations, and then after visiting a few customers politely, we did a down in another area.   Again, very happy and eager to work in a new and distracting environment, without much time to check it out at all.   I'm very happy to see how in tune she is to me, and how trusting she is.  :)

Finally, after the bank, we came home to lunch.  I decided to start Fizz's formal retrieve work today.   We're using Sue Sternberg's inducive retrieve.   I will not do a force retrieve on my dog, in any form.    As I read through the booklet, I knew I was going to struggle with the necessary co-ordination of holding the db, holding the treats (we used broiled chix breast) and trying to pop the db into her mouth.   Thankfully, she is a very patient puppy, and not hyper sensitive about her face/body being touched.  She kept pushing at my had and getting me all out of position, so there was a lot of wiggling around. 

Initially, I started with a wooden db, but quickly decided there wasn't room to get my hands in there where I wanted, and so changed over to a plastic one with a longer bar.  

Session 1 was our very first attempt.   The goal is manually place the db into her mouth and immediately reward with high value treat.   At the end, a 'test' is presented in that the db is shown, and when the dog grabs for it themself (vs. the manual placement), BIG jackpot reward.

Session 2 was about 10 minutes later, after a bit of tug and playing.   In this session, I was rewarding her for taking it herself.  No more manual placement.   She showed great willingness to take it.   There was some nosing/licking, but I suspect that will quickly disappear, as it's not being rewarded.

Session 1:  (long video, 10 minutes)

Session 2: