Sunday Training Time

Today Steeler and I went to a "training party" organized by Karen. We all had obedience run thru's and worked on whatever else we wanted with our friends. Steeler was just AWESOME today! First - he took a little short walk with Winnie - the malamute puppy that is now bigger than he is and I think he has decided that she is ok. We might try a walk in the woods at some point this summer. Second - he was SUPER hanging out with dogs going past him and he felt comfortable enough to just lie down and hang out. Third we did some work with a Collie puppy - I don't remember how old she is now - maybe 7 or 8 months? And the two of them went nose to nose at one point, kind of by accident - and Steeler has decided that she is ok too! He had no reaction when I called him away. We worked on Stays as well and we did a bunch of short ones where I actually took the leash off for a change and went all the way across the ring! And to top that all off - his novice run thru was spectacular! His heeling was awesome, his recall was great even if his front was just a little bit crooked. His stand for exam was pretty good too, just a little bit of minor shifting of the feet when Karen walked in to do the exam. He LOVES his auntie Karen - so to stand still while she comes in is really hard for him.

After that we stopped at Ann's house to do some more training. Ann and I have made a pact to try to get together more often to actually do more training stuff with our dogs. Some friends of hers with a little white dog named Harry also came down to add another dog to the mix. While we were waiting for Harry, we started with just Brandy and Steeler hanging out - they are both a lot alike - this is BORING when are we going to MOVE! When Harry arrived, we took the dogs down the street to an area that I think links up with the Blue Hills Reservation(?). At any rate - we took the dogs for a walk through the woods where Steeler and Brandy went nose to nose sniffing the same spot a couple of times with no reaction from either of them. We saw some horses as well. When we got to a wide open spot where we could see for quite a ways we worked on taking the leash on and off with Steeler. It seems I have done a spectacular job of pairing the leash going on, the appearance of other dogs, and mom getting nervous to result in Steeler doing a cujo impersonation. So we are going to try to uncouple that by working with dogs I know first! Instead of trying to jump straight to strange dogs. At least it isn't just putting the leash back on that causes this reaction, so we have a place to start! And I know he can do this - because we can walk all around the agility trials and not have a reaction to other dogs passing within a foot or two.

All in all, we had a great day hanging out with friends! But now Steeler and I are tired! :-)