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Hey! thanks for watching! Athena climbs on shoulders when invited into affection, she is a small Mal and its part her affection exchange with people she is close with. If Ana wanted to she could recall her off of me or give her an off command, Athena is not allowed to control affection in the home. I agree this behavior could be unwanted or unsafe depending on temperament. Mals are inclined to be very touchy feely.
We went right into training. Athena had done bite work prior to this session. Vetra was brought out and we went right to work
Both dogs have completed phase 3 and this phase 4. I do not toggle the ecollar levels at this point in the training. Vetra is at avoidance levels for all of her commands.
At the 6:50 mark I did give her quite a bit of time to self correct, in that moment more than I probably needed to. Good catch! I could for sure clean that up. One thing I consider when we are running drills with no play or primary reward of freedom or fun I try to be gracious. Drills are drills..this session was all work and no play, which is important….sometimes in life the dog will have to obey orders without an immediate release…but I try to read the dog’s intention at this level of training. I coach my clients that we are not just praising good and punishing bad…rather we are required to watch the dog and read their intent then take the appropriate action in real time based on their efforts and intent. We should also do everything in our power to calculate why the dog is “disobeying” and and adjust accordingly…if we can’t in moment, we certainly can afterwards.
I wouldn’t say this is typical…I only have a few clients that I would be this relaxed with. Typically we have muzzles on and leashes or long lines (flexi’s) on. If a dog does go off leash around other client dogs, its done with more safety measures in place.
Once Athena left Vetra got to play and swim and bite, but she was not allowed to play with Athena.
