Everybody Got to Train

We just did training sessions. This is good - Tessa being in a very structured basic class is getting me back in the groove of training sessions.

Speedy and I started off with some rehearsal of the end of his Intermediate routine. The last third of the routine is the weakest part for us and that's never good, so I am doing some extra rehearsal with it for a few weeks. I really want to get this routine ready to video in hopes that we can finish the title and be finished with Intermediate Musical Freestyle forever!

We warmed up with some focus in front, heel, and right. I clicked and gave treats for voluntary attention. Then we moved into practice. We practiced his swing into right and then his spin. Then we did the last part - cross to a stop where I pivot so he's back in heel. Swing to right, he goes slide, slide, slide to the right and then we spin together. Then I pick him up in front and I move back as he moves toward me and he dives under my leg. Then he backs out after I stand and he does a spin and a twirl behind me. Then I move forward three steps, and he should stay behind me. I spin so he is in front, as we move, then I go back as he goes toward me, three steps and I spin as he continues to move. Then we go three move steps and then he does an arm up and then we will go into our final bow. We practiced up to the arm up. I don't want to stress him by getting him on his hind legs too much.

Next was Tessa. I cut up some raw chicken heart for her to work with! We started with the luring exercise from class - lure to a sit, lure to a down, lure to a sit, lure to a stand. She likes that. We did it a few times. Then I tries to lure her into heel, but she wasn't having it, so I switched the exercise up a bit. I had her sit and I moved so she was sitting in heel. Then I rapid fired treats to her there. Then I moved so she was on my right. She didn't like that and skittered out of the way a bit, so I tried again, but gave her more distance.

After doing that a few times, I grabbed a couple of hands full of treats and just walked through the kitchen with her on my right. She right heeled pretty well on her own, so I gave her some rewards for it. We did the same on the left. I did two full passes on each side. That was nice - she seemed to enjoy it.

Finally, we started to work on the stay. I'm modifying the stay a bit from how we did it in class. I had her sit and then put a treat under my foot. I cued the stay and showed her the treat, but covered it again immediately and gave her a treat for holding the stay. I gave her another and then released her to the treat on the floor. The second time, she broke and went after the treat, so I just put my foot over it. She sat right back down and looked at me - I rewarded that and released her to the treat. She seemed to enjoy this version of the game. I think she is going to pick up on this very quickly.

That was it for her . . . sort of! I actually had to put a leash on her and make her go in the room so I could get Dean out! She wanted more, more, more!!

I worked Dean on the platform. I need to go back and look at my platform training instructions. He is doing well with this. I just had him get on it with me in different positions. He was getting the idea really well.

When I got Maddie out, I let Tessa come back. I put one jump post out and had Maddie do "outs" around it. I showed Tessa how to go with her and let her play, too. She really liked this!

Finally, I went back in the room where Sammie and Speedy were. I had Sammie do his high fives and Speedy joined him with paws and taps. I did a couple of short recalls with them and let them do some downs.

I love that Tessa is just eating this up! It's not just the treats, either. She really seems to be interested in figuring out what the tasks are so she can offer them herself - I'm just seeing bits of it. I have a feeling she is going to be quite something when she gets some of this down!