Jackal's November Trick

Picture taken 5/09.

Some of you may remember that I was going to play around and see what Jackal offered for his November trick. Since I'm busy with NaNo (www.nanowrimo.org - Haven't written anything the last two days oops) I wanted something easy to teach. Well I was watching a movie on T.V. and there was a horse doing the halfpass and I thought that would be totally cool to teach Jackal! Well, actually the sidepass. So I decided to try it. I figured why not? What could it hurt?

I got him into a heel position and started walking forward with a lure in front of his nose to keep him in position. As we went forward I started going slightly sideways, sort of like a halfpass. When he crossed his feet over I clicked and gave him a treat. After a couple of times of that I started going completely sideways after just a couple of forward steps. He started to anticipate me pretty quickly, but was swinging his butt wide, so I didn't click those. I only clicked the ones where he stayed right next to me. Eventually I wasn't even having to bump into him. A couple of times he tried to spin and face me, but that was just my lure and delivery. After a few small tweaks we had a cute sidepass going. Of course it's only a couple of sideways steps. We'll have to work on having him do it without a lure and me standing up straight, but for the first session he did great!! Jackal is so much fun. I really need to review all of the tricks he's learned this year so far so I can make my end of the year video. I can't wait to show it to all of you. Start thinking of cool ideas for his final December trick and I'll add them to the poll. :)

P.S. I met a lady today who has Papillons!! The one she was babysitting was adorable! I didn't get to see her dogs because she lives in a nearby city, but maybe someday. I wish I were ready for another dog now because she has puppies, but it'll probably be a few years. I wish I'd had my camera to get a picture for you. She was so cute!!