Patreon CoolWhip Woods Training: "Go through", leash off stay with me, Whiplash, Recall w/ Hidden Cheese (full training session) (Patreon)

Hey Folks! 

I was going out to do a quick woods training session and last minute, I decided to bring you along. I'm sorry for the poor audio (you're going to have to turn it up and down when I'm close to camera and far away). I'll mic myself next time but this really was a last minute thought, and I thought you'd enjoy the unedited training session either way. 

In this video I work on: 

"go through": go through a threshold and reorient to me. This is a newer skill that you can see Eric teaching in another one of my videos. We have never done it at the gate to my yard where she typically gets let out to follow me into the woods. 

Leash off, stay put: this is just me working on her not bolting off when I unleash her in the woods. I've gotten lazy about this so it's a retrain session. 

Whiplash game: this is another game you can see me training Eric to train in one of my other videos. Here I am playing it in the woods. If you can't get them to orient to you when calling their name, you can't get a recall. It's an important foundation skill. 

"Come": one rep of me calling her to hand and then running with her to show her the "cool thing I found" which was a slice of cheese that I planted there before our session. 

Takeaways: 

- I manage the behaviors at first because I don't know how she will be at these newer skills. This means I leash her to start when going through doorways, and when I play the leash off game, I start with having a double ended leash clipped to her so that if she did react by running off when I unclipped her, I still actually had her on the other end of the leash. If she was not off-leash reliable, she would have been on a longline. 

- Note my repetitions. I keep it fun and moving along with only 5-10 reps per exercise. 

- I use high value rewards (turkey meatball warmed up, cheese, and vital essentials treats) because we're going to the woods and working on skills we either haven't practiced in this location, or haven't practiced in a while. You can see her getting distracted by the squirrels and rustling in the woods. She loves to chase animals if given the chance so having structured pattern games that we play can help her warm up for a hike, or remind her that we listen to our cues, even around squirrels. 

- I often throw food. I do this because Whip is very motivated by "chasing" so chasing down her food is much more fun than just receiving it from hand. 

Any takeaways that I missed? Put them down in the comments below! 

Happy Training!