If you look at this blog lately, it looks like we’ve spent the winter sleeping and taking pictures. LOL Admittedly, during the winter, my training seems to take a dive. I have trouble getting motivated to do a whole lot when it’s cold outside. That being said though, we have still been training (at least a little). Fortunately, we have a friend who has a heated indoor building with mats where we can meet to train about once a week. I don’t know what I’d do without her! Another friend of ours has recently acquired an Aussie puppy that’s Layla’s age, so we’ve been driving the 1/2 hour to train together in the heated building.
Which brings me to the title of this post. I’ve been working with Layla on some basics, like “sit”, “down”, “stand”, “here”, “wait”, targeting (both nose and paw touches), walking on leash, etc. I love training the basics again. It gives me a chance to evaluate my training and try to improve my skills. One thing that I know I want to improve this time around is my distance work. I seem to be able to teach the basics, but then I’ve got a hole in my training where I don’t seem to ever teach them to work away from me.
So, I made up a chart that includes the things that we’ve worked on, and then gives me different criteria for the same skills. For instance. “Sit” She is pretty reliable at a close distance 1-2 feet away, but more than that…we need to work on. So, I made small goals of increasing distance to 3-5 feet away and so on. Same goes for changing criteria of training in the house as opposed to training outside in the yard, to training in a new building, to a public park, to a trial site. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t have any doubts that Layla is capable of doing great things, it’s just a matter of me figuring out the best way to work with her to achieve them.
It was an unexpected loss, and she is greatly missed!
