Bud’s Kory and his 2 minutes of stay

In just 10 days Kory has progressed quickly in his 2-minute training sessions.

What began as sit and down exercises, then tossing the kibble with “go find!” and recall to sit, is now sit/stay and down/stay training.

I generally observe from a point where I won’t distract him, at least until he gets settled in his work. Bud puts his food bowl on a deck chair, sets Kory up in a sit/stay, leaves him to walk to the chair, brings back kibble, and feeds.

Kory is about 90% solid on both sit and down/stay. It’s amazing, really, how clever this boy is. When he’s working, he’s steady and focused, all at less than 14 weeks of age.

When he’s not working, by the way, he’s schmoozing with the pack, forming alliances and posturing appeasement to the less welcoming of our dogs.

On Sunday afternoon, during our agility workshops, Kory got to stay in his ex-pen with our student, Nancy, doing a little puppy-sitting.

The rules were that, if Kory was noisy, he was told to “settle.”  When he went into his down (for “settle”) she’d count 1-2-3 and feed a treat. If the treat is given too quickly the dog assumes a behavior pattern of jump-up-on-the-pen, hear “settle,” lie down, eat a treat. Dogs will jump up just to start the behavior chain.

By counting 1-2-3 (and, later, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10) the chain is broken, the dog is holding the down, and they’re being rewarded for staying settled.

Kory did really well at class on Sunday and I wanted him ready to accompany Bud to the building for camp Tuesday through Friday.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I walked to the building mid-afternoon and there was Kory, curled up with his head touching Blue’s rear, sound asleep while Bud taught in the other end of the building.

As I watched agility I heard activity in the ex-pen. Blue was explaining to Kory that the ex-pen was for resting between exercises, not for rowdy play. She was explaining it as only a bitch can. Gently, but noisily and firmly, Blue got the message across in no uncertain terms.

Beginning today I’ve asked that some of Kory’s stay exercises include an obedience “return to heel position” as Bud brings the food back. I don’t expect Kory to have much trouble staying while Bud walks around behind him.

In other news, I’ve heard through the grapevine that HSOV’s (Humane Soc. of the Ohio Valley — Marietta’s shelter) new executive director has taken it upon himself to fire the new shelter manager.

The board of directors hired them simultaneously and they’ve both been working out of the same office for about 2 months. I try to stay out of the politics but, honestly, how on earth does this happen?

Rather than having management attacking each other it would be nice if someone at the top would start managing the staff of young men who seem to spend 50% of their time on smoke breaks and texting their friends on their cell phones.

It amazes me how some kids get by with low-paying jobs (or no jobs at all) and a $40/week cigarette habit. Who supports that habit?

Tags: agility camp, basic dog obedience, Bud Houston, crate training puppies, dog agility, dog performance sports, feeding dogs, puppy training, sport obedience