Say hello to Murphy! Murphy is brother to the beautiful golden retriever Eowyn, who is in training with our flyball team. Murphy's momma came up to visit her daughter, who is Eowyn's momma!
Eowyn's Mom invited me and my pack to come visit a fully fenced, private off-leash dog park,
Camp Charlie. Eagerly I took off work early for Owen's first off-leash adventure since coming to foster care.
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| Maya and Sappho waste no time stretching their legs. |
Since Owen has never been off leash, I had to make sure that I could keep him close to me. He lived as a stray in California, possibly for quite a while judging by how thin he was when he came to foster care. Although Camp Charlie is fully fenced, 37 acres is a lot of ground to cover if a 10# dog decides to explore on his own!
Immediately after I let Owen off leash I called him back to me and rewarded him for recalling. He took the treat and then headed off to explore, and I called him back to me, again rewarding with a treat when he came back.
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| Lots of interesting smells at Camp Charlie! |
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| What one dogs find interesting usually brings the others! |
It only took a couple trials before Owen realized that when he came back to me, he received a treat. I've been doing this casually in the course of our daily life - calling him around the house or outdoors, and rewarding him for coming to me with food, praise, or both, so this was not a completely new behavior for him.
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| Owen recalls back to me. |
I stopped calling Owen to me, but kept rewarding him for volunteering to check in with me. I never tried to stop him from heading back out, although sometimes I'd grab his harness for a few seconds while giving him the treat. By grabbing his harness or leash, then releasing him back out to play, I help teach him that people reaching for him is a positive thing and that just because someone is grabbing his harness doesn't mean the fun is about to end!
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| He knows that reward is coming! |
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| After the reward it's back to playing! |
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