AIF project
Week 8
Preparation For Canberra Trip, Research on Puppy School
This Weeks Planning
Timetabling - E2
This week I had to go to Canberra from Wednesday to Sunday (including flights) for the National Fencing Squad Training camp. According to the itinerary I received the training camp would run from 7:30am - 8:30pm everyday which was quite a long time. Therefore I decided to make my weekly tasks quite light as I was pretty sure I would not be able to do a lot of work this week.
Canberra Trip Prep
Pre - Canberra Trip Preparation - E2
Day 1 (Wednesday)
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Basic Trick Revision – 5 to 10 minutes (e.g. sit, shake hands, lie down and play dead)
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Wait before eating – at dinner count to 3 seconds before allowing her to eat the food
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Crate training – toss a treat into the crate and tell her to go in. Praise her when she does. (10 min)​
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Day 2 (Thursday)
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Trick Revision – Focus on the go into the crate command.
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Wait Before Eating - Repeat at both meals. Try to increase the wait time slightly if she’s doing well.
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Crate Training - Feed her some treats or give her a toy and let her stay in the crate whilst occupied for 10 min.
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Day 3 (Friday)
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Trick Revision – Do a quick review of all known tricks.
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Wait Before Eating – Repeat at both meals.
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Crate Training - Ask her to go inside with a treat. Give her a toy to play with when she is inside.
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Day 4 (Saturday)
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Trick Revision
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Wait Before Eating – Repeat at both meals
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Crate Training - Place her in crate with a soft toy or chew. Try leaving for the 10 min period.​
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Day 5 (Sunday)
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Trick Revision
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Wait Before Eating:
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Crate Training: Leave her in crate for short period and leave the room for 10 minutes.
Note - E2
For the training plan I adapted it so that it was quite simple as I didn't think my mum could handle a complex training routine. Mainly I wanted to make sure Winnie did not forget the stuff that she learnt with me by having her do a little bit of revision every day.
3rd Vaccination
Vaccinations - E2
On the 18th of March Winnie went and got her 3rd vaccinations. This resulted in her feeling a little sick on Tuesday (the day before I left for Canberra). Whilst it meant that she might not have gotten the amount of training in the training plan I think this was also somewhat of a blessing in disguise as her vaccinations did not interfere with my proper structured training programme.
Dog Training Feedback
Plan to address the feedback - PA1, E1
Whilst I did not have time this week to address the feedback given to me by the professional dog trainer I felt that it was quite helpful. Some of the feedback such as not repeating the recall cue multiple times was something I had already researched. However, it was not something that I intentionally did. Therefore, it was quite helpful getting the feedback from a professional that could spot it out. Other things such as the 10-15 minute session was good information as it was targeted specifically for Border Collies. Overall I am quite happy with the feedback and plan to implement it next week.
JOURNAL ENTRY WEEK 8
SUMMARY OF JOURNAL ENTRY - E1, E2
This week I couldn't get much done as I was in Canberra for the majority of the week. Additionally Winnie got her 3rd vaccinations on Tuesday which didn't help my mum with training when I was away.
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What went well this week:
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- Received feedback from dog trainer
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- Wrote a training plan for my mum which allowed Winnie to do some minor revision of her previous things
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- Winnie got her 3rd vaccinations which sets us up for other training in the future (e.g. socialisation with other dogs, attending dog groups and going to dog parks)
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Next week I plan to implement the feedback from the dog trainer into my AIF project and continue to practice fetch as it is my main focus right now.