Day 5

 There was rain in the forecast  so we worked close to home today. This training session was focused on skills rather than completing routes. We started off by teaching Eagle how to target trash cans because we will literally need to find them every day. PSA please clean up after your dog, everyone else in the neighborhood appreciates it. We used clicker training to associate a word with the can, I use "bin" because it's short and easy. While in front of the trash can I would make a fist, put it against the side of the can at Eagles level, ask him for a touch, click and feed. After a few repetitions I would then add bin in front of touch (Bintouch), he would bop my fist with his nose, click and feed. Then I would drop the touch and just say bin. Once he established that bin means put your nose up to the trash can, we would take a few steps away and I would tell him "to the bin", he would walk over to it and show me that it's in front of us. You can target pretty much anything, like a certain door in a hallway or a bus stop, it's a very useful technique. We then took a little walk and I asked Eagle to find several different bins along the way.

Next I wanted to work on recall, so my instructor brought out the long line (~20 foot long leash). This is a good way to practice obedience at a distance but still have control in case something happens and the dog doesn't listen. I would give a command like sit or down, tell him to stay, then walk to the end of the line. Sometimes I would tell him to hold his sit until I returned to him and other times I would call him to me and reward him when he touched my hand with his nose. Heeling was next, I would hold the leash with the extra length dragging on the ground while Eagle walked on my left side. We practiced turns and he stayed with me, good boy! We followed up the recall training by practicing walking past food on the ground. I intentionally dropped treats in front of him and reward him when he looked at me instead of dipping his head to eat off the ground. He didn't go after any of the treats I dropped, if I were a dog I'm not sure I'd have that level of self control. When there were at least 30 treats scattered everywhere, I picked up the harness handle and walked back and forth across the minefield, giving him lots of praise when he ignored the food on the ground and kept walking forward.

Challenge number 3 was putting on the booties and walking to Trader Joe's with them on. He was not dramatic about it, and to keep it that way, I'm going to have him practice wearing them for 1 route per month. Phil absolutely refused to wear them in the winter and I think that was my fault because I used them so infrequently that I didn't reinforce the good behavior when wearing them. Will try to do a better job with Eagle.

The booties came off before we entered Trader Joe's because we had another challenge planned for him. Since doing controlled traffic checks with a car is not feasible in the city, the instructor said we could get the same effect by using a shopping cart. A traffic check is a situation where your dog needs to back up or move forward quickly  to avoid an oncoming moving object, such as a car or shopping cart. While training at Guiding Eyes on site program, trainers will drive their cars straight at you to test your dog's decision making and reflexes. It gets you used to what a sudden stop, quick back up or lurch forward feels like. This is important to experience while in training so that you know what to do when this happens out in the real world. 

In the store, the trainer grabbed a cart and we went down separate aisles. I walked straight down the aisle with Eagle and at the end she cut us off on purpose and he had to stop in his tracks. She then turned the cart towards me and started moving forward. Eagle backed up several paces and I went with him. Solid, no hesitation, just what I was looking for. We did this a few more times, grabbed some almond milk, and headed home. Just as we got to my front door, we started to feel the first rain drops come down. Perfect timing!