- Location
- East Sussex
I had a very productive lesson this morning, and I'm feeling really encouraged that we're making progress. We haven't been for 2 months and the trainer said she thought we'd really improved (I don't think she was trying to flatter me!)
We spent most of the time on turns and pivots, as in the last rallyonline competition I lost 5 marks on the left pivot. Much of this was sorting out my feet - I need to glue my knees together and march on the spot as I turn - and my hand position on my left hip. She also told me that if I felt Molly start to lag I was slowing down and together we were grinding to a halt, whereas if she starts to lag I need to speed up. I know she's told me these things before, but I seem to need to have them repeated to me. We worked partly while looking in a large mirror and that was useful. I tend to want to look down at Molly to make sure she's in position but I did manage to start looking ahead and at one point when I stopped, staring ahead, I said, 'Where is she?' and the answer was, 'Sitting at your heel where she should be.' Bless her cotton socks.
The trainer is encouraging me to continue to feed very frequently during heel-work and has suggested I do a lot of 'sit, two steps, feed, sit', to really reinforce that heel position. I feel cross with myself that I was so determined to drop the food for heelwork too quickly. Silly really as for 'down' I reinforced very heavily over a long period and Molly has a rock solid down stay now.
After the lesson I stopped on the Downs on the way home so Molly could have a relaxing amble and sniff. Interestingly she several times brought herself into heel position by choice (not just walking by my side but the close, nose-up position we'd practised) even though I had no treat visible. I did rummage in a pocket to find a reward.
We spent most of the time on turns and pivots, as in the last rallyonline competition I lost 5 marks on the left pivot. Much of this was sorting out my feet - I need to glue my knees together and march on the spot as I turn - and my hand position on my left hip. She also told me that if I felt Molly start to lag I was slowing down and together we were grinding to a halt, whereas if she starts to lag I need to speed up. I know she's told me these things before, but I seem to need to have them repeated to me. We worked partly while looking in a large mirror and that was useful. I tend to want to look down at Molly to make sure she's in position but I did manage to start looking ahead and at one point when I stopped, staring ahead, I said, 'Where is she?' and the answer was, 'Sitting at your heel where she should be.' Bless her cotton socks.
The trainer is encouraging me to continue to feed very frequently during heel-work and has suggested I do a lot of 'sit, two steps, feed, sit', to really reinforce that heel position. I feel cross with myself that I was so determined to drop the food for heelwork too quickly. Silly really as for 'down' I reinforced very heavily over a long period and Molly has a rock solid down stay now.
After the lesson I stopped on the Downs on the way home so Molly could have a relaxing amble and sniff. Interestingly she several times brought herself into heel position by choice (not just walking by my side but the close, nose-up position we'd practised) even though I had no treat visible. I did rummage in a pocket to find a reward.
I need one more level 2 excellent and then I can move on to level 3 which is off-lead. (You can enter 2 levels on-line, but has to be the lowest you are eligible for and the next one up.)
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