2. Getting on a rowboat-very first time
1. I asked two of my friends to stand in water (swimming depth for Olive, just a few strokes). She is a very social puppy and loves to visit anyone. My concern at this point is she tends to turn in front of a person and starts coming back to shore (does not go around the person). At the NCA water test, a drowning steward must be able to reach a dog/a line a dog is holding. I want to make sure Olive gets close enough to the steward. Sometimes it's hard for judges/spectators on beach to tell what's happening in water. I do not want to give any doubt to anyone if my dog reached to the steward or not. Going around the steward definitely shows Olive reached to the steward. It does not matter if she goes around from left or from right. But most of the stewards are used to have a dog coming from their right side and going around to their left. Right now Olive goes to the person's right side, but turns away (opposite from going around). Today we worked on going around by luring with treats. In obedience, she does "around" finish from my right side to left, so she should be able to figure out it is the same in water. The important things were: Be consistent to make her go around. Work in very short distance because today I was teaching go around which is a small part of an exercise, such as Take a Line or Take a Lifering at tests. No need to swim out more. Just needed to focus on one block at a time (Building blocks to teach one exercise !!!).
Video: Go around1
2. Today I realized she is not as fearless as I thought. She was not sure about getting on a rowboat. In the video, you can see she did NOT jump up on the platform. I needed to lure and encourage her a lot to get on it. Yes, it is exciting to see a dog who naturally jumps up on the boat like he/she has been doing this for many years, but this is a good chance for me to show Olive every little step, so she will be very solid to getting on a boat under my command in the future. Under the newly revised NCA water test regulation, once a dog gets on the boat, he/she is not allowed to step down on beach. It does not matter if you are still under the time limit or not (30 sec. to get on the boat before rowing out). This means the dog must be under GOOD control. The dog should not get up on the boat by himself since there is more chance he also gets off the boat by himself. So, I want Olive to be solid for wait, get up on the boat, turn (around) and sit on the boat. Today I made her get on the boat, go around, sit, wait while boat is moving, then jump off. After I reviewed this video, I realized we worked on too many components all at once. She did not jump up on the boat immediately, took for a while to just move her feet to go around on the boat (you can see she was leaning against me for comfort and safety), and wanted to get off the boat as soon as she managed to turn (At the very last moment in the video, you can see she got off before I told her to do so). I unintentionally made her learning stage more challenging. At next practice, I need to make sure she first becomes comfortable to 'Up", then move onto next part.
Video: Up on boat1
