On January 14 2008, 10:07 AM, SisMorphine wrote:I originally got Teeny for FR and started teaching her article guard by feeding her in the basket I was going to have her guard. But that only lasted a week and then chaos ensued and we never followed through.
That's too funny....
We've been using a platform surrounded by a long leash. We lay the long leash about 2-2.5 feel away from the platform in a circle. This is the biting/out line. I have Cy sit on the platform, where I give him the command, "Garde D'Objet." He already knows that "Garde" means "Watch." So I figure now I'm just telling him to "Watch the Object." Then, the decoy walks around the platform, while Cy watches him. When the decoy reaches in for the platform, Cy is allowed to bite. The decoy fights him, and as he pulls Cy away from the platform and out of the leash circle, I give the out command, then with me standing right next to the platform (platform is on my left), I tell him "au pied" which means "heel." Then I give him the object guard command again. In this way I want him to learn to always return to the object...by the end of the session, you could tell him to out and he was returning automatically to the platform...
What's funny is this: at the decoy camp last year, the east coast asst director for PSA (Rick Furrow) had me do an object guard with the car with TJ. Well, TJ failed miserably...so, knowing that it might show up again, Greg and I started hammering it in to him...He was getting the whole idea to bite, but not the letting go and returning to the object. Well, at midwest regionals, Jerry was judging, and in obedience, he had me send TJ on top of a 4-foot high platform. There was a bite suit laying on the platform. I was supposed to do a change of position with a decoy walking around the platform, then TJ was supposed to demonstrate a food refusal (I think I have these on tape, if I do, I'll put it on YouTube). Well, when the decoy was throwing the food, he was reaching in with his arm. TJ must've thought this was an object guard b/c he reached out and opened his mouth to bite, at which time I quickly yelled no...