Cold Morning - Post Training - Over Success

Argus after training this morning - temperature about 10 degrees.  Does not seem to faze him.

An interesting thing happened in training today.  Here's the story -

We trained last night with Buck.  Working on the Over command.  He did fine if I identified the pile first - he goes right over on command - command is say word "Over" plus point arm in the direction - right/left.  He had a problem when I did not id the pile - he would just look up at me confused.

Buck gave some suggestions on how to handle - basically move closer and enforce a "fetch" if he hesitates. Fetch is a very specific command - one that Argus knows and that he must obey.  It is a command that he was "forced" on - basically an absolute command with ramifications if Argus does not obey.  Buck normally does not like to use this command to solve another problem, but thought Argus needed it to break through whatever block he had.

So, we went out today in the cold weather to work on it.

I set it up, warmed him up with some Over's where I id'ed the pile.  Then, did an Over without ID.  Argus did not move and had the confused look on him.  I moved closer, repeated  and added the "fetch" - Argus went right over and picked up.

Try again, and he has similar problem.

For some reason, I think back to training the previous night.  At Buck's, it is "first come, first served".  So often you have to wait around and watch others get trained before your turn.  It is usually very productive just to sit and listen - most of Buck's training is actually training the human.

Well, a couple people before me was a guy who is a little ahead of us in training.  Buck was working with him on Over's, Back's and Angled Back's.  One thing Buck said was that sometimes, if you yell your command on an over, the dog will go back.  Back is the primary direction in teaching dogs to run blinds, so it is the command we most often do.  So, when stressed by the handler yelling "over", a dog will sometimes go back and/or fade back.

So, using the same logic - I sometimes have to out think Argus, maybe Argus is confused because I yell a command and point.  Let's just try the point - with no words.  Well, lo and behold, I do a silent Over - no words, just point to pile - Argus goes immediately over.  No problem.  We proceed to do about 10 of these - both directions - without any problems.  All this time I was frustrated with him for not understanding, but seems like he was confused with my signals.  Need to learn to speak Poodle next time.

We'll see if Buck is ok with Argus' silent Overs!