After all your outpouring of support and appreciation of course I can’t give up blogging! I’m not promising you’ll get anything intelligent out of me, but I’ll try to keep you updated on the goings-on around here.
Yesterday we went to work with Thehusbandy. We’ve taken the dogs driving truck before, but I can’t remember if I posted about it or not. Usually I end of working on those days and it’s not as much fun for the pups, but my back has been really messed up lately so I played the wimp card so Magnus and I could go exploring. We went to a really pretty park with huge tree’s. Of course my camera battery was on it’s last legs so I only got a few pics, but I think they’re pretty cute ones. I’ll post them on a WW one of these days.
It was early and the ground was still frosty. It reminded me of how much I love early morning walks. I used to always walk early with Meeka, but I’ve been lazy this year and almost never got out till evening. There are less people out and about, especially when it’s below freezing like yesterday! Since I’m such a total introvert I really like it when there’s not many people out. It also makes it easier to do “off leash” stuff. (I never really let them off leash unless it’s legal, but I will let them drag their leashes or long-lines so we can work long distance recalls and stuff.)
Magnus has been in a class that is a combo of Beyond Basics stuff and CGC training. His stays are MUCH better. I can pretty reliably get a 15′, 10 second stay now. His back has been bad again so we’ve been doing more down-stays and I worried that would ruin his sit-stay’s, but yesterday he never laid down on a sit-stay once! I’m sure he just didn’t want to put his little naked belly on the freezing ground, I guess that’s another benefit of walking when it’s freezing out!
I'm an easy going guy! I've always loved sticks!
His recall is getting better too. We’ve been practicing recalls with distraction so I call him and when he’s on his way to me I throw a ball or something and if he chooses to come to me we party with treats then I release to go get the ball. It’s been a really good skill for him.
He’s so easy to work with now that his focus is getting better. We have a good rhythm where he works and then I release him to “go sniff”. If he chooses to keep working we work some more, but in the spirit of GMAB if he doesn’t thats okay too. He loves to play and I find this makes working easier and more fun since he needs lots of breaks to keep in the game. He’s also so easy to reinforce with play. I didn’t have toys with me yesterday so I just grabbed a stick and we played fetch. He’s turned out to be a really fun boy! I’m thrilled with where our relationship is and where it’s going.
I have to thank you all for your kindness again. I’ve been catching up with all your blogs and am happy to have joined this blogville community!
