Working Trials

Turned up for the course to find that I was the only one as the other person didn't show so Tom and I had 1-1 training!

Firstly we had a go at tracking and apparently Tom is quite talented even though I wasn't so sure as he didn't follow my track exactly but this wasn't a problem as he was air scenting and following my track and finding his toy even though I'd hidden it. We were working in a public park with loads of dogs and he didn't get distracted by them except when two labs came charging over to see what we were doing and even then he only briefly acknowledged them before dragging me off along my track to get his reward. The wind got up a bit which makes it hard for the dog but I was really pleased with him even when I put a slight turn in. The track length was less than 10 metres but I'm hoping that I can build that up over time, I'm going to have a go with Duds and Suzi too as I can use one of the fields at the stables where I keep Fenella.

Retrieve wasn't quite as successful, the exercise they have to do is retrieve 5 articles from a set sized square and although he was quite happy to go to each toy he tended to choose one he wanted and bring it back to me to play with, more work required on this one.

Speak on command - well he may be gobby but we couldn't get him to bark at all even though we teased him with his toy and food and by me leaving him with the instructor, the only time he barked was when I put him back in the car and only when I closed the door.

Sendaway - a resounding success. I tried to teach this to Dudley when we did obedience but he wouldn't always go away from me or lie down but Tom got the idea of this very quickly and went 'Away' at his usual full speed and once he got the idea of lying down as soon as I said it he dropped like a stone. I used his tuggy with the velcro bag as a target and will carry on using this for a while but once I'm sure he's got the idea I'll wean it off. While we were doing this we talked about having to do an instant stop in the Gold Good Citizens and how I struggled with Duds which was why we stopped at Silver, as Tom was so good targeting to the toy I put him in a wait and recalled him to me and threw the tuggy down about half way between us and told him lie down, he soon got the idea of this too and I'm really going to practice this as I think having an instant stop would be great in case of emergancy.

Tom found a sock while we were talking and had a great game flirting it at us, coming just close enough for us to think we could grab it then dodging away and wasn't interested in the dogs that kept coming up and looking at him.

I would love to have another go at Working Trials training but Baskingstoke is quite a long way to go so think I may have to Google and see if there is anything closer, the only thing that puts me off is the scale as I think he would launch himself off the top and probably do himself an injury.