Time to work

Miss Hailey Bug of Ottawa has started Intermediate Obedience training.  Her class has 4 new to her dogs ranging in age from 9 months to 2 years old.

Here are the results from her first class:

Target	How/What Lee Did
Sit perfectly straight beside person	She sat, but she tends to turn her bum away from you so she can turn and get a better look at the Lady’s face.
Sit down sit	After a few trials, she seemed to get it.
Sit immediately when asked during a walk	Last night this did not look great, she would stop and look up like the Lady was crazy. On her walk this morning she was 100% perfect (and usually sat at the right angle!)
270 degree turn to the right	After a few, she did great at this
Turn to the left	Really no problem
Be handled by another person	She appeared to respond ok to this, it was difficult for the author to see as she was attempting to handle a 10 month old, very happy Labradoodle named Dandi (short for Dandilion)
Sit Stay while Lady goes far away (eventually out the door and out of sight)	It is fair to say that this will be Lee’s greatest challenge. She just doesn’t want to be away from her Lady. During one test, all the dogs sat and stayed and their people went 6-10 feet away. 4 of the 5 dogs were rather relaxed. Lee was completely on high alert. She was tense and her eyes didn’t leave the Lady. Poor little thing was highly distressed. It is difficult to tell if this is just part of who she is, or is a by-product of being a rescued dog (and if it is, it is a very mild one compared to what many people I have talked with deal with). It should be noted that in the house she is rarely more than 6 feet from one of her people or another animal and is often touching them. It took a lot of practice, but Lady was able to get the furthest she has gotten from Lee at school about 8 feet. While this is technically the worst in class (everyone else could get at least 12, one could even leave the building and go outside!), the Lady is very proud of Lee. The teacher is working with Miss Bug and the Lady to modify the requirements so that she can be successful. I think it will be very helpful that the Lady is a behaviour analyst and understands the principles of shaping behaviour. The man is happy that the Lady will be spending her spare time working on someone other than his behaviour!