Training

Red was ready to go this morning - I think he's figured out the days of the week and Saturday mornings meaning TRAINING!! yay!

Heeling. Wasn't too bad. He forges ahead a bit at first so I looped the leash around my back, and then after a minute or so he is better. The attention was nice, and I released a couple times in the middle of the heeling pattern before he started to get bored and put his head down.

Figure 8. Not as much bumping this time even though he still keeps his head down. Not sure why he thinks this isn't like normal heeling... But it was improved from last time in regards to the bumping anyway.

Stand for exam. No problem.

Recalls. Much improved! I returned to him twice after Michelle yelled "call your dog" - the first he didn't flinch at all and I returned and rewarded, the second she said it he flinched a tiny bit but didn't move his feet so I returned but didn't reward, and the third time he didn't flinch and I called him. I've been keeping my arms down to the side and not bringing them up to assist luring him into posiiton. The front wasn't perfect but it was pretty close, so I waited a second to make sure he was seated in position, then rewarded with a big handful of treats. I was pretty happy with it. At least we're making progress!

Sits/downs. The last two times we've been to training, he went down on the long sit. So this time I made sure he was in a nice, tall sit - said "stay" very firmly, and then returned and rewarded three times during it. The dogs on either side of him broke their sits and he continued to sit nicely while their owners returned to put them back into position. Upon returning, I gave him a big handful of treats and praised quietly as he stayed in position. The down was great, he popped onto a hip but didn't flop over onto his side. I didn't return to reward because he hasn't had a problem with the downs. After returning, he got a jackpot and was allowed to stick his nose in the treat bag.

Dumbbell. He stole another dog's db but didn't seem to like it because it was huge and didn't fit his mouth well so he dropped on his way to me. The handler didn't seem too happy that Red stole the db, but I'm not going to correct him for picking up ANY db at this point. So I got out Red's own db and the first time he brought it back, he acted like he was going to drop it but then held on so I could take it. Then I had him hold it while I walked around him. Then he got to retrieve it and came back into front and held it nicely. He earned a big handful of treats and the db got put away.

There is another OB fun match next Friday, so I am excited to run him again and see how he's doing when we put it all together.