We had another ‘out and about’ training class last night while they’re getting the training barn astroturfed, so we met in an overflow Waitrose car park in a rural town centre, walked to a pedestrianised square and did our training there. It works surprisingly well - this is our 3rd training session there, and after the first session’s oddness (hi vis running groups trotting through, groups of teenage boys staring etc) it’s actually a really good place. A few distractions, lots of variety and a bit more ‘real life’.
This session we practiced 4 new activities: Middle with front feet on, where the dog puts their feet on yours and you shuffle forward; Sit Up and Beg, where from Middle you shuffle back a little and ask for a sit so your dog is sitting on your feet, then with Mark & Treat encourage the dog to slowly start leaning back supported by your legs into a sit up; leg weaves, where the dog weaves between your legs from left to right and right to left as you slowly lunge forward; and Pretzel, where your dog has a sustained two paws on your arm, and then puts their head under your arm - this stretches their shoulders and gives a good full body lengthening. All of these were challenging for us (me), as we’ve only just got Middle so Kipper’s not keen on me shifting about - plus my handling skills were abominable: kept dropping kibble, forgot the weaving technique, a real Mr Bean with Kipper’s little face saying “I mean, I’ll give it a go but I’m not quite clear what you’re after...”
Finally in the car park we played with chuck-it sticks, using treats to focus the dog’s attention on the cup part for loose lead walking and throwing games. Kipper was excellent at this so we ended on a high!
we managed 6, apparently the record is 19! No ide how... here’s Kipper on his boundary
. In the meantime, I continue my own thing but I know I could do so much more.
