Article results continued

Articles and Alder

Alder was wrong on one of the articles on August 2, then correct every time until Aug 8, when he had issues with both.   The weird thing is that, on Aug 8, I was happier with his articles than on any of the prior times.  He was more enthusiastic.  He trotted out to the article mats instead of plodding slowly out.  He apparently understood the concept much sooner than Maple, but either lacked confidence or simply didn't like articles.

On Aug 8, he missed the metal, I think, because he didn't sniff carefully enough on the first article he came to, which happened to be the scented one.  His speed looked like  a sign of either increasing confidence or it indicated he was beginning to like the exercise.  When I sent him back again, he was more careful sniffing the articles and did not hesitate on the correct one.

On the leather article, he veered off with a hint of mischief in his eye and went to my training bag to look for his toy.  I should not have set it so close to the line.  Too much of a distraction at his fragile stage of confidence.  I kind of liked his little show of mischief.  With Alder, any sign of initiaitve is a good thing.   Overcoming his tendency towards passivity is a constant uphill battle with the dopey poodle boy. 

Maple and Articles

Maple seemed to take longer to understand the exercise.  Either that, or, being the determined little retrieving fanatic that she is, she HAD to test those tied-down articles.  On the occassionas when she has selected the wrong one, she didn't just give it a little test pull.  If it didn't move, she would put her back into trying to yank it up.  Good thing the rubber mats are heavy.  If I had been using a peg board, I'm sure she would have drug the whole board back.  No blankety-blank article is going to get the better of Maple if she has anything to say about it!

Future plans are to stay with the 4 tied-down articles until both can find the correct article reliably when sent from about 30 feet away.   Then we'll move to 6 tie-downs (3 pairs).