Woohoo! A Great Day!

Very excited and happy with how today went. I tried out the technique of delivering the treat behind my heel directly on the floor. Placing it on the floor, not dropping it. This placed me slightly ahead of him and I was able to encourage him to follow me and click him when he was at my side. if he forged ahead I changed direction gently and clicked him when he was heading back to me, the treat again on the floor behind my left heel.

I think a huge part of the success of today was incorporating Ian Dunbar's method of getting out the house by waiting for a series of sits and working the hallway to the outside with the front door open. So in general, excitement levels were lower by the time we were outside and if things got too much again, we just stood and waited. I guess I often forgot the rule that you can't train if the dog's not in the game. I was struggling how to get him in the game at all.

So we just went up and down in front of the house. Going nowhere was a relief too. No pressure to get to the park for a run. We just came back into the house for a while before then going out in the car for a really fun walk on the beach. He had a play with a collie pup a bit older than him, got filthy muddy in the grassy boggy bits and then the sun came out. I wasn't stressed about his recall because of the terrain and I managed to get hold of him nicely or distract him from cyclists and on lead dogs. The other great thing was that the beach was right next to the parking space. I even managed to do some LLW training in the car park which is a real challenge for him as it's probably his most exciting place evah!

I was very proud of him today. Love that pup.