Wordless Wednesday

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Canine Co-Pilot

Enjoy our wordless Wednesday pictures!

Freddie and brother playing

Freddie 7 weeks

Freddie sprinting

What ma?

So you wanna play????

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Canine Co-Pilot

Soren the sire to our “A” litter below having some fun in Virginia. Thank you to members of Cavalier K9 for taking these pictures.

Terrific Tip Tuesday

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Canine Co-Pilot

This weeks terrific tip Tuesday is all about food drive.

K9 Emeline learning to pop up on her hind legs using food lure

A food motivated dog is an easy and fun dog to train. I do not know anyone who would argue with that statement! Believe it or not a lot of “pet” dogs and clients that i work with are amazed at the food drive their canine has after a few short sessions. A dog has a natural drive to have food, if tapped into correctly this primary reinforcer can be used to teach the dogs all kinds of nifty things and your dog will love you for it! So can’t afford, or do not have the time to sign up for lessons?? That’s fine, check out these easy tips below to start your dog off on the right “food drive foot”

K9 Annecy learning the side stretch to keep her agile all with food lure

– Make him work for it! In other words, do not just slap a bowl of food on the ground. If you feed a kibble diet try out some of the nifty toys that dispense food.

Omega treat ball

Bob a lot

Kong wobbler

These are made of solid plastic, and fairly indestructible, and teach fido to work for or “hunt” for his meal. A side benefit is it also mentally tires him on days you cannot spend time on multiple obedience lessons at home.

Once your pup is hunting a bit for his food while playing with these toys, you can also expand it by hiding hand fulls of kibble all around the house. Now is the perfect time to practice a down stay, first in the room you are in so he can see where you are hiding and learn to use his nose, then as you begin to proof your down stay in another room so the hunting is harder!

During your obedience sessions, teach the dog how to follow a food lure in your hand, and get him to go in different directions or offer different positions. This not only works his mind but keeps him engaged with the “flying treat hand”

The food drive world is full of endless possibilities, as is your training! If you are interested in learning more about bringing your dogs food drive out whether its for work or fun contact us today!! EIK9Training@gmail.com or 607 624-7598

Jenn and the Canine Copilot Pack

Annecy’s obedience

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Canine Co-Pilot

I have finally buckled down and Annecy is back to her daily obedience sessions. We had mostly been doing shaping, and trick training to keep her Mali head busy.

In preparation for her BH our focus is on heeling, sit and down in motion and fronts. This is our first session below! Hope to see continued improvement.

You will also see Soren practicing his loose long down, i say loose because he is more on a place command then a platz command. I’m building duration and distraction without worrying about position.

A trailing dogs journal

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Canine Co-Pilot

Emeline has had a busy and very successful last week with a wonderful life saving trail, so we decided to reward her with what she loves best……another trail!!!!

Pink is Eme and Red is the subject, The trail paths overlay almost 100%

2 feet of snow, and a mile and a half later we got just that, plus a very tired Jenn and her flanker Deiber.

Eme playing with her ball after a long practice trail

Flashback Friday

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Canine Co-Pilot

Enjoy this weeks Flashback Friday!!!

Valentine and mom

Boburka during his puppy search training

An exert from the Allynwoof blog

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Canine Co-Pilot

K9 Soren working with student Kaled

So why do we talk about fitness and back end awareness so much??? Well first off its vital to working dogs to have a clear understanding of where exactly that “other half” of them is! From obedience to rubble work, to navigation in dense woods having hind end awareness is vital to these working K9’s…….and its fun!!!

We use a combination of shaping and luring to capture the behaviors we want. Using a secondary reinforcer called a clicker we are able to mark the exact times and behaviors we like and then reward. When the students learn that they can manipulate behavior with a clicker and food, they begin to see how the world manipulates their behavior with a lot of the same reinforcers!!!!!!!!!!

K9 Annecy working with student Ian

In these pictures you see the canines targeting the bucket with their front paws, this allows free movement of the hind end in a circular motion. They are taught to spin around both ways keeping both front paws on the “target” This is what gives them the awareness of the back end, while also reinforcing and teaching them to use their brain and “offer” behaviors to us!