Sixth session of the advanced class today. We didn’t learn any new commands, just honing in on what we’ve already learnt.

The trainer thought there was a bitch in season, as the un-neutered male dog was going a bit wild, and then later on the neutered male dog was also having issues concentrating. So we took things a little slower this session and did commands one at a time.

Heelwork

We started off at normal pace, walking person to person and then moved onto walking dog to dog.

Then we moved onto slow pace, and I believe this was when the trainer noticed something was awry.

Stay

We practised down stay, where the male un-neutered dog was having issues.

Artemis did ok, she did sit at one point, then I went back to her and asked her to go down.

The down stay continued, and we all walked about to distract the dogs.

Send away

Next up was send away, where the trainer set 8 cones along two sides, making a walkway.

I asked Artemis to heel, wait, removed the lead, put a treat at the end of the walkway – I was really obvious about this. Came back to her, said “away”, she went towards the treat, I followed behind her along the walkway. Then asked her to go down, she did eventually.

Then asked her to wait, I walked around, her head was turned to follow me, so adorable with her flexible head, then I called her to heel and we continued walking till the trainer asked us to halt and I asked Artemis to sit and she sat with one paw on my left foot! She did it though!

Angled recall

I asked Artemis to heel, wait, removed the lead, walked to the other end of the field, faced Artemis side on then asked her to come.

She came hurtling towards me and then positioned herself nicely in a present position in front of me. I think she finds this command quite easy.

Hold and retrieve

So we have been practising this a little at home. Artemis seems to be able to hold the tube when I give it to her by hand, but she doesn’t like to pick up the tube from the floor. She used to be able to inside on the carpet, but when I tried doing it outside on the grass she wasn’t having any of it.

The trainer advised that when Artemis picks things up from the floor, say “good girl, hold”. She understands hold when you give things to her by hand, but not when things are on the floor.

I’ll start giving Artemis her dental chews on the floor instead of by hand to give her confidence that she can pick things up from the floor.

When another owner threw their pink dumbbell Artemis was really interested in it. They kindly lent the dumbbell to us to see what Artemis could do. She would hold the dumbbell when I gave it to her by hand, so we tried the command again.

I asked Artemis to heel, wait, threw the dumbbell a little way away, asked her to hold, she did go towards the dumbbell but didn’t pick it up.

So I think this confirms the trainer’s thinking that Artemis understands hold when you give things to her by hand, but not from the floor.

Conclusion

Didn’t learn new commands today, but learnt about Artemis hold command via hand vs via floor. The send away and A recall were good, and heelwork was ok considering there were loud horses in the nearby field.