Third session of this round of Advanced classes, some major housekeeping today.

Heelwork

We started straight away with slow pace, which was painful.

Then there were lots of about turns, and then some double about turns, whilst walking dog to dog – really challenging from the get-go.

The trainer then asked the dogs to be in the down position, and then to start walking again.

The next command was call your dog, which was fine. 

Send away

First we tried this with a treat and then we tried without a treat.

Sending Artemis away is fine, she is always sniffing out for the treat and goes towards the correct direction.

It’s getting her to be in the down position that is the issue, I was advised to have more of a panic in my voice when I say “down”. Let’s see if that works next time.

A recall

Next up was A recall: I asked Artemis to heel, then asked her to wait. This time I walked back and forth, walked around the field, and then called Artemis to heel.

The trainer advised to have my left arm out behind me so Artemis knows to come to my left side – she did pretty well in this command, I think.

Novice recall

An easy command for Artemis, she just ran straight towards me with some crazy eyes after I called her to come. She just loves running towards me, I guess.

Hold and give

Artemis’s hold was good, showing some improvement.

But she didn’t want to give the tube back! I was advised to praise on hold and to praise on give, no tug of war business whatsoever. In the end the trainer had to open Artemis’ mouth manually with her fingers to release the tube!

Conclusion

Some good housekeeping today, keeping things fresh in my mind. We were both being worked quite hard today – but all in the name of bonding and enrichment.