Worked on Heel, Sit, Stand, Down, Front, Finish. Used a Fantastic Foam ball as a reward. Dropped the ball from under my arm for a good Heel, Finish or Stand at my side, dropped it from the middle of my chest for a good Front, tossed it to her for positions at a distance.
Stand at a distance & Stand by my side were things we haven’t done before. She got the Stand at a distance in 2 trials, and the Stand by my side with use of a nose touch in about 4 trials. By then, she’d stand, touch my hand and then look at me; ‘I KNOW it is the Stand you want, NOT the nose touch!’ From there I began sticking my hand out as a reminder, and she wouldn’t even bother with touching anymore; ‘ah, look, I get it!’ So next time we’ll see if she can do it without a hint!
We worked on the street in front of our house, and her favorite neighborhood cat was also sitting outside in full view. Cars came by, but those never bother her at all. So, the distraction was definitely the cat, and I think she did great! I heeled her past the cat once, got great eye contact throughout, dropped the ball for her and she came right with me instead of saying hi to the cat. Another time before that, I had put the ball on the sidewalk, parallel to the cat on the other side of the street. We heeled away from the ball, turned back toward the ball, Finish, and I sent her off to go get the ball. She looked at the cat as she took off, but then went straight to her ball and brought it back to me. Yay!
We had fun!
The picture shows Luna last April, with a Zogoflex Huck ball, at her ideal weight of ± 61 pounds. Tomorrow I’ll know how close she is to reaching that weight!
She looks great at 61!
ReplyDeleteYeah, she does! It's a great balance between athletically sleek & looking healthy! People still ask me if she's a young dog, and I keep disappointing them; well, not really, she's 5. ;-) Nice compliment though!
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