Todays training

It was nice to get out training some more. I met Jessi in Älvsjö and we trained in the Stockholm Fair garage. It was great to finally get to use the car for training! I could put one dog in the car while training the other. So that meant I didn't have to stress and could spend more time with each dog.
I trained for about one and a half hour. It went so - so, since I haven't been training for a while. It was hard for the dogs to concentrate and they weren't used to thinking so much.. Especially Aila, that got a bit crazy and jumping and running and all. But she's so good at coming and lying down (staying down) when I tell her to. So whenever she gets too excited I'll just give her the "down-stay" command.

With Vazy I tried to shape the behaviour of going in to the middle of the square of cones. It was going alright, but it's really hard for her to realize it's in between the cones she's supposed to go, since it's nothing there! But I think that it's the right technique and it only needs some time. She was really good at the "forward" command, which I only tried once.. Best yet I think. Then I was trying some heelwork and down/stand commands. Overall it was going well, but she's got a hard time concentrating.. So MORE training is needed!

With Aila I was trying to focus a bit on the heelwork, which was really hard. She was super excited and started barking when she didn't get what I wanted. But she got more focused after a while. I tried some new technique that Jessi showed me for the "down". I'll see what I'll do with that.. She's good at lying down, but not so good at staying down. But I think that I just need some more time. She needs more rewards for simple behaviour, and then I just have to make it harder step by step.. But I think I'll also continue with Jessis tip on the side..
I also tried some "apportation" (still noone that knows what it's called?). It went really well, but she's overexcited and want to grab it all the time. But in the end I managed to get the point across, I think..

Hope they will be ready for some competition this spring/summer..

Anyway. Tomorrow it's more training with Kicki! Hopefully she can take some pictures as well.

ps. Today I went for a walk in the forest with the dogs, and they were amazing! I met several dogs, the closest one I only saw when it was one meter away. And the dogs still came running like crazy to me when I called them! Great progress! It's really good, cause there are so many dogs here. I meet at least 3-4 per walk. So I think they'll get more used to meeting other dogs now...