My main focus for a while is going to be training Maze. I took a class at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy which helped me so much, I don’t know if I really would have been able to figure out Maze without that class. The class was called Empowerment. I highly recommend FDSA for dog training courses!
While I can’t describe the class (you have to take it!) I am working through things that I learned from the class. So you may or may not see things in my posts that I learned in class. Suffice it to say, I’m incorporating them into Maze’s training and things are working great.
The two things Maze doesn’t like most of all are Noise and Movement. So, the teeter could be a challenge for him. What I did learn in class, though, was that I really don’t want to work through fear and into tolerance with Maze. I want to work through confidence and into him demanding to work. So for him, it means starting very, very slowly with super easy things. While I probably will mess up occasionally, I am now certain that Maze and I will master the teeter as well as the other training challenges we will find.
Maze is Kromfohrlander and a very smart boy! From talking to other people who have trained Kromis for agility, they do not all have the same training issues as Maze does. So Maze is unique in and of himself. And while he does have a certain Kromi cautiousness and flair, I’m finding him so much fun to train!
So on to training videos. 🙂
One of Maze’s favorite games now it pushing weird things out of the way to get his treats. I’m increasing the noise and difficulty level slowly at this game, and he’s doing really well!
Another game we are working on is for him to put his nose into a cone. I want him pushing his nose into that cone and demanding to do it! We are not at the demanding phase yet… but he’s getting better. He likes to have the cone on the ground. In this video, I was trying some various other things he could put his nose in too, but I ended up liking the cone the best. 🙂
Since Maze doesn’t like movement much, I’m using my red cart to get him to be used to being on it. I’m not moving it much at this point. The mistake here, unfortunately, is that the ramp and the cart moved, and it scared him. Unfortunately I’m going to have to back up again and reestablish the fun of the cart.
Maze is super sweet and I just adore him!