15 secs is a long time for a puppy and a cracker

I was sat on the sofa eating a cracker, as you do. Grey was clearly interested so I put him a corner of the cracker on the cushion and asked him to 'leave it'. He easily lasted 15 secs, which is a huge thing for him I think. Also because I didn't have my hand near the cracker to protect it if he decided to go for it. I think this might mean he's passed L2 zen.

Today I did more of the run away from him training and hiding. He was even closer and even starting to turn it into a game of chase me. I made sure we had our last walk well before it went dark today as I don't want to risk encountering fireworks or kids in masks for halloween. Quite a few kids came to the house and there were fireworks on and off during the evening. Quite a bit of barking, but nothing too bad.

A good day

We had a brilliant couple of sessions trying out the about turn walking yesterday. I must have looked mad in the park and it's certainly going to keep me fit! I kept it up for about an hour the first time. I just kept walking in the exact opposite direction from him as soon as he came past me. He started to range shorter and shorter distance and got the idea that he had to keep an eye on me. It really tapped into the thing that he really likes to be 10m ahead of me. We finished off the session with a game of hide and seek round the big trees. Then the best bit, we walked home on the flat collar and lead and more or less made it home with no pulling. Yay!

So will do more of the same today. I think I have to come up with a range of activities where I'm more fun and interesting than what he can get up to on his own devices. Popping out with L this morning with him to do the come game that we used to play when he was little. It's so easy to forget to do this stuff once you've got used to them.

The about turn walk

Interesting method via the Gundog Club forum that I think will work with to turn around Grey's recall. I have sort of developed this myself with him over the last month as one of the ways to get him back is to change direction. But I often call him. So this method means doing lots of about turns away from the dog without calling him.