An interesting breakfast session. I found a longer target stick yesterday. I ask her to touch it a couple of times, she does. X5. I move it slightly away from her, and she tells me she wants to work Go To Mat. I move away from the mat and present the stick again. She stays on her mat. I give Scuba a kibble, and Stitch comes over to touch the stick. X2 and she lies down on the floor with her head down (her standard Go To Mat position). Won’t come when I call her, won’t get up to touch the stick. Hmmm. An interesting theory, small but mistaken child, that holding your breath will get you what you want. I give Scuba another kibble and put the stick and Stitch’s breakfast back in the pantry, close the pantry door, and do some laundry.
Five minutes later, Stitch is giving me a to-die-for stare (or glare, depending on your interpretation) and following me all over the house, occasionally clipping my heels with her paws. Finally I ask her if she’s hungry. She says she is, so I go get her dish and the stick.
Boy, can she touch that stick! She can chase that sucker all over the living room. X15.
Now I WANT to work Go To Mat, but I don’t think that would be a great idea for this morning. Instead we do bullseye. She’s dead on, her toes almost brushing mine, with her eyes glued to mine. X30, four in a row I toss the kibble behind her so she can come front again. Five and six I toss behind me through my legs so she can go through, then come around to find front again. Boy, can she front!
As long as I’ve got this lovely contact, we work on the heeling about turn and step. She’s a little slow, but she’s not being sluggish. I TAUGHT this to her slowly, so I’m going to have to speed it up soon. Perhaps on a tile floor the day before I leave on vacation is not the best time to ask for speed. We also do some left pivots and work on getting the lateral motion back in her rear end. She’s trying hard, just not quite sure what I want.
Then we do a bit more work on her Sit Stay while I return around behind her. I ask her to Sit, tell her Stay, walk out a couple of steps in front of her, then come back to her. One kibble for stay-as-I-approach, one for stay-with-me-beside, one for stay-with-me-behind, one for stay-as-I-come-around-the-corner, and several for stay-with-me-in-Heel-position. X10. Then we move on to one kibble for approach, one for behind, and one for Heel position. X10. Then we do three in a row with no help, just c/t for staying while I return around behind her into Heel position.
And that reminds me of Stand Stay, so we do five more Stand from Sit, then I ask her to Stay. She does. In fact she looks like she knows what I’m talking about, so the second time I ask her to Stand and Stay, I walk all the way across the kitchen to get some more kibble, and she stands. And I walk all the way back and give her a couple, and she still stands. We do shorter Stand-Stays X5, and I’m so impressed I quit and give her the rest of her breakfast free.