Day 17: We Interrupt this Training

After a week of obedience and a "refresher" on the fetch table, we are back in business!

Today Kevin, Rob and I headed over to the club for some training. I was happy that from the get go Fred was paying much more attention! I decided to move back to the three or four bumpers around the corner of the pond.
It wasn't perfect or even pretty; but the week of momma's iron fist seems to have him paying attention to me again. Ironically he got off of his line a few times today. I think it had to do with him being able to see the other "blinds" when he got out there. Nonetheless, we got a chance to handle a bit and he did a good job. I made a boneheaded handler error on the second one where I blew the whistle, but didn't wait for him to turn around before I gave him a back...doh. I think this training is as much for me as Fred. I also enjoy the play by play critique from Kevin and Rob!

I am having trouble posting the video; but things went well for the first three. On the last return he makes a big production about trying to get out of the water. He has been reasonably de-cheated, so he never tries to run around the bank, but he runs up and down it. Kevin yelled at me to stop him and whistlehim back, which worked; however he still flopped around like a 6 month old puppy....back to the drawing board I guess! It seems that every time we fix a problem, we create 5 more!