Taking turns

I'm having lots of fun with Rampage lately! I don't know if it's because he's matured a lot in the past few weeks or if it's because I'm spending more focused time with him. Probably both :). Don't get me wrong, he still annoys the crap out of me sometimes and I'm sure he'll continue to do so for a while (he is RED after all) but when we're working together I'm starting to feel like we're a team.

One thing I want to work on with him while Icon is on a break is to have him not be a maniac when I work with Icon. He's a huge brat when I work the other dogs (but especially Icon) and this is an issue because it makes Icon shut down. Even if I crate him inside, out of sight Rampage still throws a hissy-fit. The only way to keep him quiet is to crate him in the car while I work Icon.

I'm taking the easy way out and working on having Rampage quiet while he's not in a crate or x-pen. Funny how it works with border collies, but they always seem to be better behaved when they need to count on their own self control. We've made a lot of progress on this, but I'm not sure we'll make my timeline of him being able to stay while I'm actually doing agility with Icon in 2 weeks.

I'm training this 2 ways with him. One way is 'perimeter' work, where he isn't allowed to leave the table after I put him on. And the second way is teaching him to wait his turn while I play with Icon first and then him.

Here's a little video of Icon and Rampage taking turns tugging with me. Rampage was better than Icon at it, but I give Icon some slack since he's not taking to this whole "break from agility" thing very well. Poor guy.

Taking turns from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Contact work is going well with him. I think I'm going to stick with the t&t for the dogwalk. I really need a 12' plank though. I wonder if I can find someone to lend me one...