Ryder Bootcamp: Day Two

Today I switched stuff up by playing fetch and toileting the dogs first.  We are under a severe thunderstorm warning right now and the sky is rumbling away.  Ryder hates storms.  He gets anxious and does things like chew on himself, bark, whine and hides.  I've been working with him by having exciting play during storms.  It seems to have decreased the severity of his reactions.

Our first activity was the dig foundation.  I don't have a pole so have been using a tree.  This is our hardest activity.  I have a really hard time just standing there waiting for him to offer me stuff.  He has a really hard time figuring out what to do without my intervention.  I've been resisting helping him.  Today I used treats as his reward.  He was definitely slower to go around the tree.  I did have to call him back because he'd bugger off, wanting to hide by a tree (thunder).

Moving inside I did more target training.  He is pretty good with the plastic lid so I moved further away from it to see if he'd continue to be as consistent.  After a little bit of thinking time he began nosing the lid and moving between the two of us. Next I did hand targets.  He's far quicker with the right hand when compared to the left hand.  All the time the thunder rumbled.  He was definitely less focused today.  As I type this he's hiding under my bed....