Day 15: Sunday Slump

I am starting to think that I should just not train on Sundays...

Despite the cold weather, Rob, Kevin and I headed to the club. I forgot my hat camera and a scarf; which I apparently needed. I decided to take the Wagon Wheel drill and do 1/2 of a wheel around the corner of the pond. I was feeling pretty confident so we set them all as blinds.


When I took Fred to where I planned to run from I absolutely could not get his focus. I think I said heel more times than a podiatrist does in their career. Finally I got him to lock in on the first line and I sent him...and he cheated the bank. I didn't get too bent out of shape and lined him up for the next one. When I say I lined him up; I mean that he happened to lock in where I wanted to send him anyways. He went for the second one with no issues. Still fighting him and considering the use of a 2x4 as a training aid, I spent a good 5 minutes trying to get him to line up for the third one. After I decided that he was completely self employed, I looked to Rob and Kevin and said "help!".

Kevin laid out a half wagon wheel on the land and told me to go get his focus. I went over to the land and he did his push/pulls perfectly just as expected. I took him back over to the water and we were back to Fred completely ignoring me. Rather than making a bad mess worse, I put him back on the chain gang and we moved on to the other dogs.

After everyone else was trained, I heeled him away and had Rob set the blind again. This time I got him marginally lined up and sent him. His line was okay; but if I was a better trainer I wouldn't even have sent him because he was so far from what I expect from him. We all headed back to the clubhouse as the chilly rain started to come down hard; and just cut our losses for the night.

Usually I get the wind knocked out of me once or twice during these 30 day sessions; and it happened today. I am not going to lose determination, but also not ignore this problem and hope it will fix itself. While every dog has their day, I am not comfortable knowing that my little guy was flipping me off with all four paws. Since this week may be snow covered (4-5 inches tonight!) I guess we will run the gamut of push/pull drills for the next few days and try to get his head back in the game.