Big improvements

Realised today at breakfast how much the monkey has improved. Previously having food on the table would have had us in full on defence mode and he circled, sniffed and planned his attack. Today I realised how relaxed it was. He managed a lovely 'leave it' when I'd placed a dish of his food on the table in preparation to do a bit of training with him and I'd walked away. So, Mr Monkey, well done you!

We're working the L3 Go to Mat. Need to look at duration now as it's 1 minute. He can now go to mat and lie down in different locations.

This morning I practised his nail filing. Funny how it takes him a while to get started. Without doing a couple of hand touches he often just stares. After the touches he just seems to get it. The touch thing is what I'll often do if he gets stuck in training. Not sure if that is a bad thing or not. It seems to signify to him that he's in the game and off we go.

We also worked on 'stand' and 'sit up', where he comes back into a sit from a 'down'. The sit until released is coming along really nice too. I can now drop a handful of food in the kitchen floor and yesterday a piece of sausage in the park at 10ft from him without him moving until I give him the 'free' release cue.

Still struggling with LLW. He can loose lead walk up to a pile of food on the pavement. But without this obvious training cue, he's still boinging around on the lead like a young puppy. So still not able to go on linear walks into town. For the moment I'm doing little training walks and then the offlead training runs when we've gone out to a field in the car.

Video: Level 3 Go to Mat training - Session 4

Working the down on the mat. Adding in playing tug as a reward.

Video: Level 3 Go to mat training - session 3

Adding in the down on the mat.

Tuggy tuggy

I got a new tuggy today. Was a bit smaller in size than I expected it, but after initial caution, he liked it. We played a bit in the kitchen with it and he got into it. But he's always quite into tug at home. It's outside he acts differently. At first when I whipped it out on our evening walk he almost forgot where we were and he started tugging on it. But then he quickly started refusing to touch it, clearly wanting me to throw it so he could have it. But nooooooo. Not that game! Then he got a little rougher trying to get it off me. But nooooo. Not that game, either! So then he got back into just refusing to look or touch it because he just wanted it and didn't want to play. So we'll carry on playing at home and in different places and see how we go.

At home I integrated it with the Go to Mat training as a reward and it did seem to pep him up to come back into the game to do more training.

It's a neat little tug and fits nicely in my pocket.