Today, thanks to the assistance of a friend playing judge, Zora and I did our first as in Novice competition start to finish behavior as I goaled to train it Stand for Exam!! I’m thrilled!
Stood square confidently on cue, stay looking at me as I turn and faced her, stay looking at me as my friend approached, touched her and walked away (while their dog chased a ball and Tom wandered around), I returned to heel. Pause. Release. Yay!!!
And I have 9 weeks to get our sit stays up to par, our fronts built to straight from 50′, and a square finish, as well as continue to polish our heel, figure 8, down stay and stand for exam in loads of places and with varying distractions. I entered our first trial in obedience. 9 weeks. Sometimes it’s good to give myself a little pressure and a deadline. For the darn sit stay training especially. A deadline means I’ll actually follow through and train it for real.
