We met Barbara to train together this afternoon. Since we haven’t worked for a while, I started on sit stays. He’s getting pretty good at letting me go around behind him and back into heel position. When he remembers, when he loses sight of me behind him he flips his head to his right to watch me come up beside him. I did’t go for any duration, but I got out to better than 15 feet away and back. Then he got tired and started rolling back onto his butt instead of sitting up straight so we did a few down stays as well.
Then I thought I’d work on some of the stuff my conformation students are doing. Yikes, we’re behind! He remembers giving to leash pressure, that’s fine, but holding his muzzle and asking him to give his head to hand pressure – I don’t THINK so. We moved on to the arcs – nope, back legs bopping all over the place. We’ll try that on the table later. I’ve got work to do!
Since the importance of a great recall was pointed out so strongly to me by the bunny the other day, I did some Name Game stuff, tossing a treat and then calling his name just as he finished eating it. Tossing another as he was coming back to me in response to his name. That went well (again) – it’s a super game and can be done with no thinking on my part…
Then he was revved up so we turned our dogs loose. Barbara’s marvellous “scruffy little dog” is Dori. She and Spider rolled and wrestled and chased and bit. Funny to watch Spider get almost her whole head in his mouth while she’s trying desperately to get her mouth around one back hock of his. He was much better than he was in his puppy class – barely used his paws at all, stayed with mostly chasing and mouthing and rolling upside down and apparently trying to swallow her whole. Once he smacked her with a paw in full run while he was chasing her and Dori leaned back and snapped her teeth at him (bear in mind they’ve been tooth-wrestling for 10 minutes at this point). He got the picture immediately and did a really neat 360 without breaking stride. When he was facing her and chasing her again, he was careful to keep his paws away from her.
And now he’s home and napping – and making wrestling-Dori noises in his sleep. Cute puppy. He’s wonderful.