Day 26: He Still Loves Me!

Today I got home about 45 minutes before Rob came over. I have more work to do tonight than I can even begin to explain; but somehow the nice weather and my desire to be fair to Fred made me decide to go out on a nice long walk with him to work on our H's. We went all around the property heeling (where I only had to correct him once) and hupping (where the count was five). He did a great job and was not stressing at all. It was some good time between just the two of us.

When Rob got there; we let the dogs have a bit of free time, then did the smart thing (for once) and put Hondo and Ranger up and headed out to work Fred. I kept him on a nice loose lead the whole way to where we were running the first set of marks from. He was focused and paying perfect attention. I had Rob throw four sets of long doubles for Fred from different locations, and he did a nice job. He actually hunted a bit on the memory birds (which isn't like him) but I'll have to admit that the trade off for his level of discipline was completely worth it.

I didn't do anything with the collar on his retrieves as they were really as good as gold and better. So, once we were done I made another good decision. I put Fred back on lead and heeled him as we walked back to the house, scattering in a few hups and heres. When we got back to the house, I had him sit and took the lead off before releasing him to ease the tension. Rob made a valuable comment about letting him know when the pressure is off, so I told him what a good boy he was and even gave him a biscuit.

As I sit here on the couch (still not doing work in case you are keeping track) with Fred sleeping peacefully at my feet, I realize that all of this pressure, and consistency is not bringing him down or making him love me any less, but rather making him love and respect me more than he has in awhile. I suppose that this is how my parents felt after they grounded me for being an idiot, but knew that I was learning not from my mistakes; but from the way that they handled them.