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Psa

QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
Spent yesterday morning with the local, newly formed PSA club. This is something I'm very interested in for Thalia and if we could build Angus drive to bite a bit more, I think he'd enjoy it as well.

It sounds like they are going to have openings for novice teams and they would like to meet Thalia and have us start working with them on the OB portion as that's the precursor to everything else.

I watched their practice yesterday and Thalia's OB is more advanced than some of the other novice teams. I did take a few things away from the session that we need to work on.

- food and toy refusal
- "out" command when engaged in tug/bite
- OB using a verbal command OR hand signal. I have always used both, but that is not allowed in a PSA. You have to choose one or the other.

Very excited about this.


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QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
A quick video of us working on food refusal WITHOUT me asking her to leave it. This is an extremely important skill for protection dogs to have as people may throw poisoned food at them. In a trial, a decoy would throw food or a toy at her to see if she responds. Prior to this video, she did receive a mild correction for going after a piece of food. As well, we worked on me walking out of sight (Jason was keeping an eye on her). Then, some reward by playing with the bite suit tug. You can see that she doesn't lack in tenacity. She actually gets pretty decent bites, too. When I stop providing resistance, I am giving her the opportunity to set up for a better, deeper bite.

Ps. Thalia HATES laying down in wet grass. So despite the fact that I asked for a sit, I didn't correct her when she willingly gave me a down.

[video=vimeo;157225552]https://vimeo.com/157225552[/video]


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QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
We got a working spot Saturday evening after a PSA seminar. Thalia will be evaluated by a senior decoy from Alberta. If all goes well, we will get a PSA membership and then attend another working spot on Sunday for PSA members. If all goes well, it sounds like the local club wants to bring us on the team,.


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QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
[video=vimeo;157374877]https://vimeo.com/157374877[/video]

A few minutes of me working on sit, down and front using verbal command only. She'll do a half-assed finish to the left, which I accidentally said 'heel' for.. Normally, I'd say swing. Whoops. Oh well. Overall, I think she did okay. It's a work in progress.


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QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
Last night was the PSA Seminar and Thalia was evaluated/worked by the seminar presenters. One lady trains police dogs and runs the PSA club in Ontario. The other guy was a seasoned decoy from Boston. They were really great. They met the handlers and dogs where they were at. They didn't focus on negatives too much... they pointed out what needed to be worked on and helped the handler problem solve so they they could go back home and continue working through the issues. One lady has a Malinois with separation anxiety and some insecurities. The dog started freaking out when the decoy was handling her, but at the end of a 10 minute session, through soft praise, affection and very light corrections, he had her heeling beautifully. It was pretty amazing to watch. We were all just in awe of the work he was doing with this little mal that I don't think anyone remembered to take a video of it until the very end. They both really focused on just playing with the dogs and giving lots of rewards, too, which I liked to see because I have also seen some very heavy-handedness.With Thalia, it was purely drive building. The decoy had a tiny little sleeve that he attached to a long line, so that it was like a flirt pole. Thalia LOVED it. She was lunging and snapping for the sleeve when I was posted in position. She was even doing sends and regripping by the end of the session. Everybody was howling with laughter because she came in after all these malinios and shepherds and it did look really funny. But everyone was really impressed with how much she liked the game and how willing and energetic she is to just work. The female presenter said that I should definitely keep working her.We did have an accident though. I was running her back outside cause she looked like she had to pee. She went to go run up the stairs, while I was running past the stairs. Her leash caught on the banister and she essentially got clotheslined back down the stairs. She was fine. I don't even think she felt it, but I kind of just stopped and was like, "Holy shit.... seriously?!" Of course I would be the one to do that... haha
 
QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
Here's a sneak peek of Thalia's PSA session. There will be more photos.. Just waiting for them to be edited. Thalia impressed me so much.

219f292a94cdec1c7ba4d43b52f3d726.jpg



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QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
This was at the end of the session. They wanted her to end on a high note, still wanting more. They had me drag her out of the building backwards. Next time, I bet she'll hit the sleeve so much harder haha!


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QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
JamieHalverson said:
I love that girl
Click to expand...

Me too!

I was showing my friend this pic and everyone in the group wanted to see and of course, one person pipes up and says, "it's stuff like that that gives them a bad name". Seriously, lady? If she wasn't Thalia's massage therapist, I would have been more pissed by that comment. She's more of an ability person... Dedicated agility people are weird.


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JamieHalverson

JamieHalverson

Well-Known Member
QY10 said:
Me too!I was showing my friend this pic and everyone in the group wanted to see and of course, one person pipes up and says, "it's stuff like that that gives them a bad name". Seriously, lady? If she wasn't Thalia's massage therapist, I would have been more pissed by that comment. She's more of an ability person... Dedicated agility people are weird. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I don't get that... I would think that dog sport people are dog sport people. There's some stuff I'm not too interested in doing, but anything people do to work their dogs is cool to me.
 
QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
JamieHalverson said:
I don't get that... I would think that dog sport people are dog sport people. There's some stuff I'm not too interested in doing, but anything people do to work their dogs is cool to me.
Click to expand...

Where I live, it seems like certain dog sports are super pretentious and look down on other dog sports.


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QY10

QY10

Well-Known Member
Hector said:
Very nice Thalia! Do you plan to get her a different type of harness?
Click to expand...

I will definitely be in the market for a new harness. The ones I've been looking at don't come in Thalia size though :(


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