Give me a little distance.

I will be the first to admit that my training is a little strange. I started working on distance downs today and largely Vivre did well. I finally got the meadow in front of the house mowed and we were walking along to the creek when I figured what the heck she has finally seemed to really get the verbal cue. Lets try it at a distance. I wish I had thought to take a clicker because I think that would have made it a little clearer to her, but she did very well once she realized what I was asking for. She tend to not want to go all the way down, but keep floating elbows even in the house so I had to watch for that and a couple of times she sat or just stood, but by the time we headed back toward the house she was downing pretty far away. I am not good with distances, but may 75 or 100 feet away. Not on the first cue, but she was doing it. I had some cut up hot dogs I dragged out of the car, so I could toss her a bite. She is wonderful at catching so I could reinforce her at a distance, even with the food.

This is going to sound really bad and I am almost afraid to admit it, Vivre doesn't know "Sit," We train downs, heeling, go outs, marking, recalls, I could go on and on, but I just find sit boring. But Vivre has had a few sit sessions, and has been reinforced for sitting, but I haven't even tried to perfect the behavior and get it on cue. It has hit me though that I need to do that. I think that might help clear up what exactly sitting is for and keep her from offering it when we are working on distance. She is a year old any way. It is time for her to know how to sit. Plus I need to put it in the heeling.

I also need to work on slow heeling. She loves to heel and is great at normal speed and at a jog, but she just leaves when we start slowing down. I think she thinks we are done working. I'm allowed to cue at the speed changes for competition so if I have to remind her that we are still working I can, but I would prefer for her adjust her speed with out the added reminder. Just a personal preference.

I am going to start introducing her to jumping too. She had one session when she was 10 weeks where I had her stepping over a target stick held about an inch off the ground. I also have had her step through a hula hoop so this won't be totally new.

I really (REALLY) am going to have to start tracking. I wish Ring Sport was more common.