# HUUUUGE Halo bragg!!!! (long, sorry!)



## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Tonight was Halo's last night of Puppy 2. We started class by warming up individually working on sits, downs, and stands with voice commands only and hand signals only. Then we all had to do a 2 minute sit/stay (Halo was PERFECT!), and a 3 minute down/stay (Halo was PERFECT!), with me walking around the room and occasionally returning to treat. Her weakness is the stand/stay, but Nicole said it would be easy, just 60 seconds. I knew I'd have a hard time getting her to hold it for _6 seconds_. I thought







do I have enough treats to get her through this exercise, knowing that I was going to have to treat her almost constantly to keep her in a stand position?







Not to worry, I went through nearly half my treat bag, but she did great!

After that, we were to practice mat work, focusing on sending them from a distance and getting an automatic down on the mat, while Nicole went around the room and tested us one by one on our verbal and voice commands. Halo was again, PERFECT, so our test lasted only a minute, and her mat work is by far the best in the class. I had used up so many of my treats already and was afraid I was going to run out, so I was using a toy while other teams were doing their test - tugging, having her give up the toy and hold eye contact until released to tug again. I also sent her to her mat and had her hold a down with eye contact while I waved the toy around and then released her off the mat to take the toy again. We also did some hand targeting. 

Then everyone practiced heeling with eye contact either on or off leash (our choice), with automatic sits when we stopped and directional and speed changes, and Halo did very well, much better than the previous week. After that Nicole set up a row of cones down the middle of the room and had us all line up at one end of the room. The cones separated the room into lanes and we were to heel up to the cone, have our puppy sit, and when signaled to do so, continue heeling to the far end of the room, do an about face, and have our puppies sit at our sides. Then we repeated the exercise back to the starting point. Halo did pretty good, but in class I sometimes lose her to surfing the floor for dropped treats. Then we repeated the exercise with half the class starting at one end of the room and the other half at the other end of the room so they were heeling towards each other instead of all in the same direction. Six puppies showed up tonight, so it was 3 from each end of the room. 

Last week we introduced the wait command, but of course I had been working on it with Halo for weeks.







The next task was to put all the puppies at the same end of the room, do a "wait", and we'd all walk to the cones in the middle of the room and do a recall. Some of the puppies were having a hard time holding the wait long enough for their owners to walk away, so we ended up calling them one at a time instead of all at once. We were the first to go, and not only did Halo hold a perfect wait (for a LONG time!) while everyone else was trying to keep their puppies in place, her recall was again, perfect.







We did that exercise twice and then we blew off some steam by having the puppies sit and make eye contact, taking off the leashes and releasing them to play, and then we did some recalls from play. (Halo was PERFECT!)

Towards the end of class Nicole reviewed everything we had worked on in the past 6 weeks, and mentioned that last week we were supposed to demonstrate a trick, but she'd totally forgotten. She had told everyone the week prior to pick a trick and train it, and then we'd all show our trick the next week. Another couple that didn't make it tonight had apparently had a trick and reminded her at the end of class, but then they weren't there this week, so she asked if anyone else had a trick they'd like to demonstrate. I mentioned that sometimes I could get Halo to put her head down on the floor on cue but I wasn't sure if I could get her to do it in class. But when I asked Halo "can you be calm?" she immediately put her head on her mat and looked up at me.







We were the ONLY ones to demonstrate a trick! 

We all got our certificates for completing class, I grabbed my purse, the toy, and the mat and handed the leash to Tom, and as we were leaving Nicole said "'bye Halo, you're a superstar!" I laughed, and said "except when she's NOT", gesturing towards her dragging Tom out of the building. Nicole said "her test was excellent, the best I've ever had. I wish I had it on video!"







I was SO STOKED to hear that!!!! She'll be 6 months old on Saturday. Oh, and Tom took pictures but it's late and I haven't loaded them to my computer yet so I don't know if they're any good. If some of them turn out okay, I'll put up a picture thread of Halo's graduation in a day or two.


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

i'm speechless. this is excellent debbie!
_way to go_ seems like such an understatement...








Halo


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Thanks! I realized it sounded like we chose to do the heeling exercise off leash, which we didn't. Nicole left it up to us to do it on or off, and only one team did it off leash. I knew Halo would surf the floor for treats, so I thought it would be better to keep her on leash so I wouldn't have to chase her down if she caught the scent of FOOD!!!!! 

*sigh - a food motivated dog, a blessing and a curse*


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## Kayla's Dad (Jul 2, 2007)

Super super job!!!

You two obviously rocked in class! 

Now, Nicole didn't ask if you two were willing to sub and demo for her future classes? Shame on her!


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## kelso (Jan 22, 2007)

Awesome! Great work Halo and Debbie! And we must see pics...


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## Brightelf (Sep 5, 2001)

Halo is perfect!! Pat yourself on the back, Deb-- good work to you and the fluffy mighty mite herself! Your beautiful puppy-girl is growing up. Good girl for her demonstrating a trick, too! Self-control and smarts and a diligent, savvy trainer-Mom, too.. Halo has it all! You are doing a superb job with her!!


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## Lynn_P (Mar 17, 2004)

Excellent work Deb and Halo!!! That's GREAT!!! You should be very proud.


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## Qyn (Jan 28, 2005)

You have put a lot of work into Halo (as you have with all your dogs) and it shows - imagine what such a smart dog would be like if you hadn't!! 

Congratulations to you all (including your husband and Keefer)!!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Thanks everyone! I forgot to mention that not only was she the first dog put in a wait in the wait/recall exercise - as soon as Nicole said to put our dogs in a wait, I gave her the command and the hand signal and walked away and then we both waited (and waited, and waited.....) while everyone else tried to get their dogs to stay put - I also recalled her from further away than anyone else. We only had to walk halfway across the room to where the row of cones were, but I went all the way to the far end of the room because I knew she'd stay there until I called her and that she'd have no problem recalling from that distance. 

I also knew that she'd rock at the down stay. She's glued to that mat, I could do a 10 minute down stay with no problem, but she has a tendancy to lay down and get comfy on sit/stays so I wasn't sure she'd be able to hold it for a full 2 minutes, and was very pleased when she did. On the stand/stay, which I haven't worked on that much, I struggle with keeping her from sitting, so I knew that would be a challenge and I would have to stay very close to her and treat almost constantly. On the sit and down stays I was walking around the room, returning once in a while to give her a treat and then walking away again. 

I've been trying to figure out where I want to go from here, and after last night's performance I think we might be able to test into Family Dog 2 at the Marin Humane Society. FD 1 is a prerequisite, but if you take a comparable level one class elsewhere you can make an appointment where you have to demonstrate that you've got the necessary skills and they'll let you into the next level. Or maybe a CGC class - her weaknesses at this point are pulling on leash when she wants to meet people or other dogs, and polite greetings, (she still jumps up a lot), which would be skills she needs to master for a CGC, so that kind of class would be good because it would work specifically on things we definitely need more work on. 

But anyway, Halo - SUPERSTAR!!!


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## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

Congrats to you _and _Halo! You must be one proud mommy!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Oh - I just remembered one other component of the test, a two minute leave it with food on the floor. Halo was in a down with a piece of food a few inches in front of her paws, and she totally ignored it. I think she may have glanced at it once or twice, the rest of the time her eyes were totally locked onto me. We got a "nice focus" comment from the trainer.


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## Kayos and Havoc (Oct 17, 2002)

WTG!!!! Yeah Halo! She is a superstar!!


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## Vertigo75 (Jul 11, 2006)

Congratulations! Sounds like an awesome pup you have there!


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