Working on training W's hawk right now, since the pups are quite a bit more like food than hunting partner right now. Took Jack and Nova over to work with the hawk tonight.
I'm slowly learning to read her, and vary my plans accordingly. At one point, I'd traded Nova for bouncier Jack ( handy for these things that he bounces on command!), and had figured out that coming at a trot frontal to the hawk was a problem for her.
Plan A: Retreat with dog at heel when the hawk puffs up. This would work if she was reassured by the dog reading her correctly. After 4 passes, was not leading to lessening of behavior.
Plan B: Retreat with dog at heel when hawk puffs up, then calms down. This would work if removal of the dog temporarily was good enough release of pressure to satisfy her. Nope, no improvement.
Plan C: Retreat with dog at heel when hawk puffs up, then calms down. Stay away for 30 seconds.
This worked, was enough of a time away for the stress to get released and we saw tapering off of the behavior as we went.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment