Isaac and the future –> SchH 1 anyone?

Now that Isaac has passed his BH and seems to be barking a little bit for the sleeve it seems we’ll be moving forward with bite work towards a SchH 1. It seems apparent that we’ll have to do everything through prey drive and he’ll have to be barking for the sleeve as a toy – at this point it seems obvious he’s not going to work for the man. In fact in my estimation at this point the man is just going to shut him down – he’s too soft. He’ll bark for the soccer ball, strike the soccer ball, and even take drive and stick hits from me. Now would he do it for someone else? Also the soccer ball is a lot softer and more pliable than a trial sleeve (but it’s progress).

He’s got a solid bark for the ball and is also barking when people who don’t belong around are around – for example when the ComEd guy showed up at the meter he had a very solid bark, not backing down and would have been interesting if he had gotten out of the kennel. Here is a picture of Isaac and Noah doing some bite work It’s Noah’s version of the escape combined with the courage test – the bad part is that he’s not wearing a sleeve (though it hasn’t seemed to curtain this activity – Noah is kind of thick).

So moving forward here’s what needs to occur (in no particular order)

• Clean up his obedience – begin applying more pressure – automatic corrections (i.e., sit)
• Make more OB when not doing official obedience (needs to have OB when checking in and receiving critique) did this while at the park on Sunday with kids and Kerry’s friends (on lead entire time)
• Work on retrieve – start with dowel rod (eventually on flat and over obstacles)
• Add in the jump and wall (I know he can jump because on walks I have him jump a fence onto a picnic table at pavilion at the park – it’s a meter high)
• Start doing more longer tracks (these were going well for awhile, but I stopped in the heat of the summer and was too focused on the BH) – of all the phases this is the one Isaac seems to excel the most at
• Bite work (need to figure out schedule with soccer and training days at ICSC so I can actually do protection work on a regular basis or else it’s going to go nowhere)

The items that will be totally new to Isaac are the retrieve and the wall – he’s had exposure to everything else.

The real challenge is going to be fitting in time to do protection work at the club with the soccer schedule, total nightmare! Need to just get Noah and dog and quick soccer….

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