[nagdu] broken ankel and more

Raven Tolliver ravend729 at gmail.com
Fri Jun 6 19:41:30 UTC 2014


Jessica,
Your dog losing her training should not even be a concern. That
undoing would take 12+ months, if not years.
Build your bond through playing with your dog, massaging her, treating
her randomly throughout the day for simple good behaviors like laying
down quietly, and just having what I call a "pat and chat," where you
sit with your dog, pet them and talk to them. I don't know if other
schools emphasize this, but at GEB, they always told us the key to
strengthening our bond in the beginning was ensuring that all good
things come from you. Food, treats, playtime, petting, all come from
you or at least are given in your presence to make certain that your
dog understands that good things happen when you are around and to
esteem you above others as the [primary source of good things. I like
this teaching because it doesn't give rise or even appeal to being
alpha, dominant, or controlling over a dog, but instead establishes
you as leader through your status as the provider and caregiver, in
addition to giving guidance and direction while working.

Off leash recall is one of my favorite things to train. Personally, I
use toys to train a dog for this, provided the dog is play-motivated.
I start by just squeaking or crinkling a familiar toy while the dog
and I are in a quiet room, no words, just that unmistakable sound. The
dog comes every time, and I click and praise the dog
excessively,slipping him a few treats. If the dog reliably responds to
the toy after a few times, I start introducing a verbal cue "here" or
"come," after the sound has captured their attention. Eventually, I
fade the toy out, using it every other time I give the cue, then every
second or third time, and so on until I can get the dog to come to me
without the toy at all. Then, I start working on distraction level and
distance. We start with just across the room, then we move into a
hallway, then a yard, with varying levels of distractions from other
people, dogs and so on in order to ensure that the dog will come no
matter what, or at least 8 or 9 times out of 10.
Set the dog up for success by moving backward at any point in this
process if the dog is hesitant or doesn't obey reliably when moving to
the next step. Some people just expect that the dog should be able to
generalize easily and so there's no need to go back to the basics in
order to truly move forward, when this is not always true for every
dog, especially in the face of distractions. Some dogs pick up on this
incredibly quickly. Others take longer to get this skill down
pact,while others never truly master the off-leash recall.
Good luck, and heal up soon.


On 6/5/14, Marsha Drenth via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> hi Jessica,
> Sorry to hear about your ankle. I totally understand, as I am dealing with a
> broken rest myself. I hope things start to heal. And that you can start set
> work your dog very soon. Please keep us updated on how things are going.
>
>
> Marsha drenth
> email: marsha.drenth at gmail.com
> Sent with my IPhone
> Please note that this email communication has been sent using my iPhone. As
> such, I may have used dictation and had made attempts to mitigate errors.
> Please do not be hesitant to ask for clarification as necessary.
>
>> On Jun 3, 2014, at 10:39 PM, Jessica Roberts via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>> Its been a while since I've written.
>> I came home with Garbo my female yellow lab on April 10th.
>> She is such a wonderful dog and I can't believe we've been home for
>> almost 2 months.
>> We got back into the swing of things and she does routes like she has
>> always done  them.
>> She amazes me.
>> Unfortunately, about a week and a half or 2 weeks after I got home I
>> got very, very sick, pneumonia type sick.
>> Just as I was getting over that on May 8th, I was walking my son to
>> daycare int eh early morning, my husband behind me.
>> My back was hurting as it sometimes does, and I was jsut not doign
>> well, my body was jsut tired from being so sick.
>> I thought we were at a poitn in our route wehre you have to step back
>> and allow the dog ot go in front of you and follow her to the right,
>> so I did that, and accidentally stepped too far, was not at the right
>> spot, my mistake completely, and fell off a 1 and a half foot drop
>> intot he street.
>> My girl came to me, even though I dropped the handle, and licked my
>> face, whining, she thought it was her fault and it wasn't.
>> I cralwed on teh sidewalk, and cried, it hurt so incredibly much.
>> Somehow I got back up and somehow leaning on her and my husband got
>> Noah to daycare.
>> I then got on a bus, you see I was on teh way to take my biology final.
>> However the pain got worse and worse and I was about to puke on the
>> bus, so when we got to the transfer point we got off and got a cab to
>> the hospital.
>> The exrays were inconclusive.
>> It was so swollen they couldn't see.
>> The next week I went to the ortopedic, and they did more exrays, and
>> sure enough there was a hairline fracture, along with tendon damage
>> and swelling on and around the bones.
>> They put me in a brace that goes on my foot and all the way to my
>> knee, it keeps the ankel still, and I use crutches or a cane,
>> depending.
>> Up until yesterday my husband has been feeding, relieving, etc. Garbo
>> because I simply couldn't, and still can't to a large degree but have
>> started while holding onto him takign ehr out once a day to workon our
>> bond.
>> She still listens well to me, I'm just hopign she wont' have lost her
>> training when I can work her once more.
>> TSE said they'd send an instructor and a balance handle out to me once
>> I'm healed more.
>> She is such a tropper just lying quietly and playing sometimes thorugh all
>> this.
>> Does anyone have recommendations of things I can do with her to work
>> on our bond or to make sure her guide work doesn't go away?
>> Also does anyone have tips for practicing off leash recall and being
>> able to enforce it, she comes to me sometimes but only when she wants
>> to and that's frustrating.
>> Thanks so much and sorry for the rambling.
>> Jessica
>>
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-- 
Raven




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