Ok, so this video is probably super boring to everyone not me. But I'm just so incredibly tickled that I needed to share it.
Most of you guys have probably seen me talk about or reference Didgie's motion fixation. She latches onto dogs fetching and running, with Traveler at the heart of this. It's my biggest frustration with her and my biggest regret for not knowing about herding breeds being prone to this.
We've made strides in combatting this. I can now play with any toy with her and Traveler in the house and she wants the toy/me not Traveler. I stopped all dog park fetching when they are together there but even without that she's very much only into him there. We've gotten to the point where she will check in and call off him rather easily but still wants to shadow. She's also willing to play tug with me there IF he is tied up and unable to move.
But today was the first time in months that I've taken the fetch/tug outside where her arousal level is much higher and Traveler is very much of a distraction. She did great. SO much better than I thought she would.
Not only did she tug through him fetching (And I really threw the ball, not little sissy throws like before) but she was able to fetch (not her favorite thing in the world) WHILE he was also fetching.
You can see in the start of the video how she starts out, that's what we're fighting against. At one point she is looking at me without the tug in her mouth, I throw the ball for Traveler, she looks at him and then refocuses on me without prompting. That was just huge.
I hope with progress I'll be able to devote equal amount of attention to both her and Traveler while playing with them rather than having to give her so much of it. I plan on getting them each a different Wubba and making it their toy, and their toy only to work towards being able to have both of them fetching at the dog park.
But for now, we have this!
[YOUTUBE]G83UcaxTxZI[/YOUTUBE]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G83UcaxTxZI
Most of you guys have probably seen me talk about or reference Didgie's motion fixation. She latches onto dogs fetching and running, with Traveler at the heart of this. It's my biggest frustration with her and my biggest regret for not knowing about herding breeds being prone to this.
We've made strides in combatting this. I can now play with any toy with her and Traveler in the house and she wants the toy/me not Traveler. I stopped all dog park fetching when they are together there but even without that she's very much only into him there. We've gotten to the point where she will check in and call off him rather easily but still wants to shadow. She's also willing to play tug with me there IF he is tied up and unable to move.
But today was the first time in months that I've taken the fetch/tug outside where her arousal level is much higher and Traveler is very much of a distraction. She did great. SO much better than I thought she would.
Not only did she tug through him fetching (And I really threw the ball, not little sissy throws like before) but she was able to fetch (not her favorite thing in the world) WHILE he was also fetching.
You can see in the start of the video how she starts out, that's what we're fighting against. At one point she is looking at me without the tug in her mouth, I throw the ball for Traveler, she looks at him and then refocuses on me without prompting. That was just huge.
I hope with progress I'll be able to devote equal amount of attention to both her and Traveler while playing with them rather than having to give her so much of it. I plan on getting them each a different Wubba and making it their toy, and their toy only to work towards being able to have both of them fetching at the dog park.
But for now, we have this!
[YOUTUBE]G83UcaxTxZI[/YOUTUBE]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G83UcaxTxZI