21.......... close!

I’ve never been able to train Mac according to any instruction manual - habit has just become behaviour.

Mac knew exactly how long my arm was. He was always too nervous to come into my space and for his first 2 years with me, if I needed to do anything with him, I had to go into his. He would respond to his “let’s go” recall immediately but stop almost 2 metres away from me. I would then have to advance into his space and collect him. This was even the case getting to the start line. He would wait outside the ring and I would have to carry him to his measured distance before the first jump.

Because of the gap he was creating, treating him was difficult. He would stretch himself as much as possible and sniff suspiciously before accepting any. This made working with them as a reward too slow and therefore unproductive.  If he was under the slightest stress, he wouldn’t even look at a treat. I remember clearly how exited I was when he took a step towards me to accept a piece of chicken. I couldn’t let out a big yay; but he got his first “close”.

He loved retrieving but would drop whatever (obvious articles only) I had thrown and drop it a few feet away from me. Close started helping here, inch by inch.

Tugging was a definite no-no. If he picked up a tug toy and I grabbed the other end, the slightest pull would make him release it. Pressure on the other end obviously meant he wasn’t supposed to have it in his mouth.

Feeling the need to alter this “my space v his space” issue, I started revving him up so that he would jump up on me. To most other handlers this would have been against the ‘etiquette rules’ but it was all I could think of. The first time he jumped on my legs I think he got a bigger fright than me. Just touching me by choice was new to him. All he got from me was a yay! Good Boy! Again and again and again. It started paying off after a few weeks until a year later he was doing it to people he knew well, Lindsay, Chantal, Marlize, Annaret, Linda and Megan were his favourites and lucky for us they all understood and for the most part allowed it and praised him for it. That’s true support! Thank you girls.

This advance in his behaviour prompted me to teach him a few “dance moves”.

I started off with getting him to weave through my legs. With the aid of a tennis ball, this was an instant hit as he loved weaving and he loved tennis balls. He weaved while I walked, he weaved while I stood still, and he weaved for a warm up exercise and when I needed to relax him on the start line. I then introduced his left and right commands with the weaving and in a short while we had a little weave routine going.

“close” is something he now understands and albeit it sometimes a creep, he does come right up to me.

Now, how about we work on something even closer?  - "touch" or even “kiss” would be good!

Mac and Me

C’est la vie