So I just watched @Lynn May and Leto's wonderful sendaway in her post yesterday and it jogged my memory that today is Thursday. Challenge time! Funnily enough I filmed this earlier in the week - it was always going to be week 7's challenge! Go and check out Lynn's vid if you've not seen it yet. If you can try to scroll back through old posts, @Gary Martin posted a video of a phenomenal send away too. It has forever stuck in my mind as being the dream picture one day! What is quite cool is that Lynn has filmed the beginning bit - just sending your dog to a bowl of food from a distance. I also started here. Remember: - the distance isn't the important bit to begin with - you want your dog really focussed on that bowl and super eager to run to it. - Restraint builds desire - create some eagerness by holding the collar or harness before releasing - Make sure you have the behaviour solid before you add the cue I've added in a target since, which I have also rewarded separately with food and play. You can combine the target with the food bowl so that you can eventually fade the bowl out and the dog will still run to the target. I used a contact mat but you could also use a lightweight fence post or a cone. Try to place the bowl so that they need to contact the mat to eat the food. In the video I filmed earlier in the week, I actually have her dinner and I'm "premacking" this sendaway. She clearly knows I have the bowl of food but she gotta go do that send out to access it! So it makes the exercise even more challenging. The complete sendaway (for UK working trials anyway) requires a sit or down once they've run out to the correct spot. Don't try and teach this in combination with the above stuff. Work on just downing on the mat/next to the cone in close proximity to your dog, then work at being a litte farther from them as you give them the cue to down. Eventually you can combine the two behaviours. I found this tricky with Aster. She's not a natural downer and I had no idea what I was doing haha but if I can do it you guys can ❤️

I've had one of those wonderful days today. I feel great, my aunt is here for a day on her way back from holiday, we had a lovely family walk at my favourite spot on Sourton Down. The dogs were angels and Aster is just desperate to train with me! She was weaving in and out my legs on the middle of the moor, heeling like a boss, we even did some focus shift on top of the tor?! 😂she was just so eager to recall to be and hang around but equally happy to go have a run and climb up on the tors with my neices. It was really cold up there but crisp. Really energising and it was just one of those memorable walks, y'know? This afternoon I decided to do a few bits as Aster still so keen and bouncy. We did some lunging game and forward focus over a couple of jumps with lateral distance. Oh and some heeling! She did brilliant 👏 🙌 so lovely to have my old dog back. So motivated and attentive. I hope this Aster is here to stay! I used her dinner to film the next challenge so you'll have to wait for that one next week 😉😁

It's been a busy week and I'm sure it should be Friday already. We have been solo walking, weekly challenge and I actually had a nice afternoon in the garden with them yesterday. As a rule I don't do toys too often unless for training as it makes for too high excitement and they both want the same toy even when I buy 2 identical however I pulled a couple out yesterday and after a few searching games I played a few goes of fetch. They actually played nice, no body slams or pinching each other's toys and no forgetting what we are supposed to be doing and just chasing each other like crazied idiots, so successful really. Walks have been lovely. I was out by 6.45 with Phoenix this morning and it's so nice. The church was full of squirrels and deer so I had a bit of a snorting dragon but she kept her cool overall. @Holly Pearson the starting of the challenge. Im sure I like making it harder by doing it with both at the same time lol I think I will give it a try separately so Igor can't pinch so many treats!

Alot of the same training wise and a good win with Phoenix. I was out for a walk and I had her on a long line. Having a lovely time and a cat bimbles out from behind a car. Phoenix clocks it. I think shit I need to reel her in before she thinks about a snack. I'm not sure why but I just shouted "wait" and to my complete surprise she sat down 😂 so I casually made my way to her, chucked some treats in the floor and we continued on. Obviously I completely knew that was gonna work out 😂 not! Igors been out for some canicross now the weather is cooler it's nice to get him back to it. He actually did really well considering he was running alone apart from the sudden direction changes. (Free whiplash,Needs work) He went to thetford Forest to run and he was so well behaved. Ran past other dogs and people and even did some training on the green which is the main area when you aren't on the trails so quite busy with people,bikes, dogs. I think I'm going to get Phoenix kitted out with a harness so I can start running her too. Oh and @Holly Pearson me and Phoenix did sausage roll Sunday today 😂

The days are flying by! I've been really busy parenting, working and everything in between, so I've decided to follow @Nick Benger's lead and change up the way I post. I'm gonna start doing a weekly post with some content, instead of repetitive daily updates, just to take the pressure off a bit! We've been exclusively to the same fields for the same reason. As I've mentioned previously, we're laser focussed on a specific few skills - especially while a few swallows are around. I've made a couple of tweaks: - Reduced use of the turn whistle as I think it's causing some confusion for her with recall, especially at distance - With recall, I now expect her to come in and sit at my right heel "close". The plan is that recall will implicitly means she walks to heel before release. I've been treating for this, but am fading it. I feel like we're on the home stretch with the e collar training, I'm just trying to find the level that's aversive enough that I don't get ignored recalls. She's been really receptive to it though. I'm not sure I was right about her season either... Nothing seems to have developed so now I'm very worried it's going to hit just before we go on holiday and she's due to go to the dog sitter next month. 🫠