Taking training on the road.

Yesterday morning I took Dragon to a pet supply store to do training. My goals were to get him interacting with novel objects, get reinforced for focusing on me in a distracting environment, and practice nosework in a new indoor location.

It is fun to scan the shelves and find new items to interact with. I free-shaped him to stick his head against the rim of a plastic elizabethan collar. I had him pivot by my side with his front feet on a frisbee. He learned to use his nose to prod at metal choke chains and make them jingle. He did a handstand onto a low shelf about four inches off the ground. He faced his fears and knocked over some plastic toys, creating both motion and noise in order to get yummy treats.

Then I had him lie down on his mat while I went around the corner and hid his nosework tin. We were interrupted a couple of times by bumbling friendly employees who couldn't see that we were working fawned over his cuteness, but when I moved him away and reminded him to search he would get back to work.

He had much better focus than I had expected. Initially he would try to wander off when I asked him to work, but once he realized that we would do a little bit of work and then we would continue walking around the store and he could continue to explore, he was much more willing.