Hiking, Training, and Tunnels

Saturday Summit, Bode (Summit's younger brother), and Soleil went for a hike at Coot Lake. The boys were crazy and running through mud, weeds, and the edge of the lake. Guess who kept up? I brought home a muddy and burr infested very happy Sheltie girl (who promptly got a bath and blowdry). The biggest surprise was when she followed the boys into the lake. She got the zoomies and ran back and forth into and out of the water (along the edges). She seemed to think it was all grand fun! Later we posed the three dogs on a park bench. Soleil decided her sit stay was long enough and jumped off the bench in the first picture.

"Ok, fine.... I'm a very busy Sheltie girl but I'll stay for a picture!"

I've been slowly working through the stuff from the MEB Foundation videos. The list is getting long... we certainly don't lack for training ideas. Soleil is doing well with the teeter bang game, she offers to jump up on the pause table for a game of tug. Now I'm waiting for her to offer the down to begin the tug game. We are proofing sit and down stays. She will let me circle her and jog away while she holds position. Also spending time building lots of value for her release cue.

I purchased the Ready-Treat device from Clean Run yesterday. I will train her to drive to the RT on the flat and then start plank work. I will need to purchase a video camera so I can document our running contact sessions and watch them in slow motion. I've been carefully observing her running stride on the flat while she's out running with the other dogs in the back field and on hikes.

Here is a video that Mary took of restrained recalls through a straight tunnel. We decided to end the puppy training session with something fun. Mary cut it out of the video, but I am playing a game of tug with Soleil after each recall through the tunnel. I am not training tunnels yet, we just thought the dogs would like a variance on the restrained recalls on the flat.