# Halo brag: "You set a very high standard"...



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

...according to one of the other people in our class!









This was the second week of Family Dog 2, and Halo was really good. One of the things we did was sit and down stays, and that has always been one of Halo's strengths. We did them inside and then took all the dogs outside and put them in a circle around this big fountain. We were to step away from the dog, to the end of the leash if we could. We did some pretty challenging stay exercises in her previous class and yesterday practiced them in front of a supermarket with automatic doors opening and closing, and people and carts going by, so this was nothing. 

I dropped the leash and walked circles around her, jumped up and down, walked 10 feet way and back. She watched me intently and didn't budge. Several times during the class Suzie, the trainer, added more challenging levels to stuff: "if your dog can do that, try this". Most, if not all, of the time it was because of Halo.







I dropped treats on the ground, she didn't budge, so "if your dog can do that.....", she had me face her and throw treats behind me through my legs, and Halo still didn't budge. Just as in her previous class she is again the "stay star".









We also worked on backing up the dogs from a front position. Suzie showed us how to take one step towards the dog and use a treat lure to back them up. She said once they could do that, try two steps or three steps, and then try it without the lure. I back my dogs up by walking into them all the time, so I didn't bother with the lure, and I was easily getting her to back up 4 or 5 steps. "If your dog can do that...."







The next step was to try it with her next to me in heel position, and that was not so successful. I need to try it next to a wall because she kept twisting around for the treat most of the time, although I was able to get her to do it a time or two. 

Next was to teach a "bow". Suzie asked me if Halo did a bow yet and I said no since we've never tried that before. She took Halo to use as a demo dog and lured her into a perfect bow several times before saying "well, that was too easy" and giving her back.







Part of our homework last week was to work on the auto-watch, rewarding them for attention without asking for it. I've done so much of that for so long that I didn't really work on that at all, but she was probably the most focused dog in class anyway. Another part of our homework was the finish from a front position, and at first Halo's sits were crooked, with her butt sticking way out, but during the week I worked on it next to a wall or fence at first and that helped a lot. Later, when there wasn't a barrier to keep her lined up, if I could see that she was about to go into a crooked sit I used my right knee to nudge her shoulder away from me, which worked perfectly to swing her back end into line. 

We did a little loose leash walking when we took the dogs outside to work on our stays, and Halo didn't do that great. She does really well on walks, but whenever she's somewhere new that she's never been before she wants to check everything out. She's capable of a very nice tight heel with attention, but she's also very capable of blowing me off in favor of sniffing that bush, LOL! I did some 360 turns with her on our way back into the building, which one of the assistant trainers noticed and commented on as very nice, but I would have liked it if she had been more attentive in general on the loose leash walk - no matter how much I work on it, and how perfect she'll be on an actual walk, even in a pretty distracting area, I get her in class and there's just too much else that captures her interest.







. 

She got a comment about her excellent "wait" at the door on our way out of class, and since I had some treats left I used the opportunity to work on loose leash walking outside for a few minutes before getting in the car. I started working on tightening up her turns a few days ago by having her sitting next to me and then pivoting either 1/4 or 1/2 of a turn at a time. She will turn with me and do an automatic sit next to me again, and we did some right and left turn drills like that. Of course because class was over she did great, and even was doing a nice attentive heel back to the car.









While I was working with her outside afterwards one of the men in the class told me that I had set a very high standard for the everyone. He and his wife have a 6 month old Briard named Mabel, who is SO cute!!! And for her age she's doing just fine, but she's very young. They were very impressed with Halo.


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## Debbieg (Jun 7, 2009)

Way to go Halo!!


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## DancingCavy (Feb 19, 2001)

Awesome, Halo!! She's the student everyone always used to yell at for messing up the curve in school!


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

> Originally Posted By: Murphy-ElperroguapoAwesome, Halo!! She's the student everyone always used to yell at for messing up the curve in school!










You know, when the guy said that to me I laughed and apologized, lol! At least she's not perfect - we're not even close to the best in class on leash walking, so hopefully they don't hate me too much.


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## Kayos and Havoc (Oct 17, 2002)

Halo is one smart pup! And you are an exceptional trainer. WTG Halo!


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

I don't know about "exceptional" Kathy, in the past 4 months or so I've spent at least 75% of our training time working on leash skills and that's STILL our weakest area!







When she's on, she is ON, but when she's not it seems like I'm totally off her radar, lol! So still plenty of work to do there. 

Our Friday walk was 2 hours, on the busiest streets in town with lots of noisy traffic and through a strip mall, and she couldn't have been better. We went into a bike shop and met the resident dog, an 12 year old lab, and then hung out and chatted with a man sitting on a bench outside a store with his granddaughter and 11 year old lab who was a retired breeder for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Halo was perfect - she gave the dog and the little girl kisses and ended up laying down next the bench for a rest, being petted occasionally by the man and others passing by. 

She was pretty distracted last week in class since she'd never been to this facility before and it's a huge class, 12 dogs. The room is a little bit bigger than her previous class but not that much, and there were only 4 dogs in that class. This week she had noticeably settled down, as I expected her to since it's no longer brand new, and was working with me very nicely. So far she's taken each of her 4 classes in a different location, which I think is good for her. I probably need to think of new places to take her for training walks too.


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## Lynn_P (Mar 17, 2004)

That's GREAT Deb... you should be very proud!! And you are a GREAT handler.


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## jesmagmisty (Jul 13, 2001)

Xander is very proud of his big sister. He says he doesn't want to live up to her high standards either. LOL
Good job!


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

Robbie!


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

> Originally Posted By: jes,mag,mistyXander is very proud of his big sister. He says he doesn't want to live up to her high standards either. LOL
> Good job!





> Originally Posted By: Cassidys Mom
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hilarious!!!
...and Tildens thought exactly. he said he much prefer be like Keefer!


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