Learnt a couple of new things this session or add ons to current commands. Lots of distraction today, so Artemis was working super hard.

Heelwork

Artemis just really wanted to sniff all the grass today. We arrived a little late this session, so I guess she usually has some time to prepare and sniff around before getting into heelwork.

To be fair, she actually did manage to find some leftover treats from the previous class.

Stays

Down stay

Artemis was doing well in a down stay and then another dog came over to say hi, Artemis was fine but then she went over to the owner thinking that she could get a treat – what a greedy pig! I went back to reposition her in a down again and asked her to stay.

The trainer said to have more confidence and to take her lead off when doing stays.

Next we went to stand next to another dog a few times, and then back to our own dogs. I could see that Artemis was looking at each owner, willing them to give her treats!

Sit stay

Then we moved to a different part of the field to do a sit stay. The trainer went to Artemis to distract her and Artemis broke the sit and really wanted the trainer to rub her belly, but I went over to her in time before she properly went on her back to ask for said belly rubs.

I reinforced the sit and asked her to stay. The sit that she ended up doing was really weird: leg out and belly still slightly exposed. But she managed the stay, even if the sit was really odd-looking.

Off lead heelwork

Heelwork again, but off lead this time. I got the big treats out and fed them to Artemis more frequently. Compared to earlier on in the class, Artemis was actually paying attention to me, maybe I just needed to give her more treats during heelwork, or better treats.

We managed about turns, double about turns, and even left about turn with these treats right up her nose. I did have to call her to heel again when she was sniffing the ground a bit too much, but nothing like how she was earlier on in the class.

I also concluded that she much prefers the chicken flavoured training treats over the lamb ones, so I’ll have to bring more of the chicken ones next time.

Send away and A recall

I asked Artemis to heel and wait, started to walk over to the cones about to drop a treat, then the trainer said that Artemis was following me, I turned around and she was standing there waiting for me where I left her – I guess she would have followed me had I not turned around.

I went back and asked her to heel and wait again, then walked over to put the treat down. I came back to Artemis and said “away”, to which she went to try and find the treat. I’m sure she found it and I asked her to go down a fair few times. Will need to work on that.

Then I asked her to wait, walked around the cones to the edge of the field and then asked her to heel and she came running to heel. Then asked her to sit.

She did good, just need to practice the down command more. I’m quite pleased that she only managed to stand up and didn’t manage to get as far to come to me before I put the treat down the first time.

Leave it

This was the first time we’ve done this outside. I asked Artemis to heel, one of the helpers came and Artemis was really interested in her. I asked Artemis to heel again and the helper placed the treat in front of Artemis but a few yards away, to which I commanded “leave it” in a firm voice.

I think she knew what I meant, as she sat back down, bottom straight on the ground. Then 5 seconds later the helper gave me the treat she had put down on the floor so that I could give it to Artemis – she gobbled it right up!

Conclusion

Slowly learning new things, or adding new things to previously learnt things.

It appears that belly rubs and treats are Artemis’ kryptonite!