Rose is an unexpected but very happy addition to our little pack. We got her in mid-July as a 6-month old. She is an English Cocker Spaniel who is so beautifully bred and raised that we just couldn’t say no. She comes from a breeder I’ve long respected and followed who held onto her because of her performance potential until she could find the right home. She has told us several times we were the home she wanted for Rose, but we hesitated only because I had so much on my plate with my current dogs. The plan had been to wait until next year and then start looking for a show quality ECS bitch. But Rose was just right, and so happily joined us at last.
I’m hoping to consistently post weekly compilations of Rose’s training with me. While we’ll have a blast together in the show ring, she will also be training for freestyle, rally and scenting sports. Below is from the end of the first week, and you can see that she has already caught on to some fundamentals: most importantly, she’s really enjoying what she’s doing. She can already engage with me for several seconds without food or toys. She’s catching onto shaping and is already magnetized to multiple kinds of platforms and targets.
When I look back at my training list for her that first week, I see:
– engagement without food or toys
– focus work
– treat toss
– name game
– marking
– various targets (front and rear feet)
– pivot bowl
– matwork
– crate games (this happened off camera)
I’ll be working in the coming weeks on posting compilations from the succeeding weeks. If you have questions about anything or want a deep dive on a topic, feel free to send me a comment! I am planning on a post about shaping targets and platforms, which creates that “magnetized” behavior to them.
Hope you enjoy watching Rose develop as much as I do!
Leave a Reply