Lunch time training consisted of heel work. Pivots left and right, side steps to the left and swinging into heel down the hall, and then some simple pivots and swinging into heel out on the lawn of the apartment building.
Evening training consisted of more heel work, but we started with working on retreiving frisbee rollers (he did really well!). For heeling, I worked on picking up my pace to a more normal walking speed (I seem to slow down to an artificially slow speed if I don’t actively think about it), tightening up pivots, big gradual circles, and lots of left turns and circles. We also worked on a bit of agility work: jumping from the back side, threadles and weave poles. He did well at that, but the amazing part was that we were able to work off leash in the same space as his Lab friend! Perrin has been doing really well at off leash work around other moving dogs as long as he is in a down stay. He was doing really well, so I decided to try working off leash in a situation where I know both dogs get along and there was a high probability of success. Perrin rocked it! He didn’t try to run off and play, even when they were moving quickly quite close together. I even had Perrin in a sit while I was re-adjusting weave pole spacing when Perrin’s Lab friend started running up to him and got to within a couple of feet before going back to his work. And Perrin didn’t break his sit! I was shocked! He then got almost half of the treats in my bait bag. Jackpot!
We ended the evening by going out for a run/walk/hobble through the woods where Perrin got to sniff around as much as he wanted. I am ready for this mud to dry up and for spring to be over!
Adventures in Dog Training 