training has been super low key to start the year, as we’ve all had horrible colds, my truck blew up again and Toddler has started school. It’s been a rollercoaster. We’ve been steadily increasing intensity with reduced proximity to other dogs doing exciting things and it’s paying off really well, he’s working really nicely very near other dogs, better settling while watching them play and we’re going to start doing some very calculated off lead walks with other dogs soon. In anticipation we’ve been training a “move” command using spatial pressure (tbh we do this naturally anyway) to calmly move him on from whatever he is up to, this will be used if he lingers sniffing too long, ignores a cue from the other dog etc. without recalling him and increasing arousal because he’s super snappy with it or putting him in an emergency down and putting him in a vulnerable position. We’ve also been working more at recall to front, and a flip into basic position. Looooads to work on but we are chipping away at it all which is the main thing. Think I’m going to revisit some hind awareness and pivot target work to get this better - I’m back in work from Monday (sad) so we’ll be more into the the accuracy training sessions in my breaks then which will be good for him after a lot of drivey sessions lately! I’ve also got terrible fomo about the meet up tomorrow and not training with anyone in a while. Hopefully my truck is sorted soon 😥

I recorded a podcast with @Ben Sweet from the Truffle Dog Club and I think you'll all really enjoy it. In this podcast we discuss truffle hunting and how to get started with training your dog. Ben Sweet is a certified dog trainer and scentwork specialist. He hosts the Truffle Forager Podcast and is co-founder of the UK Truffle Festival and Truffle Dog Championships.

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Today, we continued to work on creating an activation behaviour in toy play. I’d like something more intense/pushy than eye contact, but not necessarily a bark, so I’ve been experimenting with play styles to see what Kairo offers. Anticipation building or, as @Nick Benger called it, the Gollum routine is our most successful strategy so far. I had a back up toy for swaps, but Kairo remained engaged and nearby the whole time. Her toy play is gradually improving, so we will get there eventually!

Putting into practise our reactivity training today - omg! Mega WinnyMcWinface. I am really pleased with a) my confidence in being able to interrupt the barking and 2) How quickly she has learned it's not appropriate! I bumped into the neighbour with his spaniel and Aster responded to me really well, even with the Spaniel getting very close. I was so laser focussed I felt borderline rude as he was talking away to me asking how my Christmas was and I was just training 😂🙈I did explain though, and I have asked if he will do some sessions using his dog which he agreed to so I have at least one not-remotely interested-in-dog-training person to bore to death with drills now. I was so excited I message Nick straight away 😂 I got the bug from there and continued my horrifically non-productive day at work by sneaking off to the park in Launceston in pursuit of dogs. It didn't disappoint, there was a nice handful there in the distance so we did some more drills and Aster was very good. She did have a good bark at one dog running after a ball but I interrupted much quicker and more clearly. She was just on her flat collar and a flexi! We still have a way to go with disengaging quicker and holding that focus on me more strongly. The insecurity gets to her and she has to stare at the other dog which will bring on the barking if it's too close or moving towards us so I am really breaking that off and having her come to me while I run backwards so we get some distance, back into middle and look at the dog (with no barking) followed by look at me. At one point a cockadoodledoo thing ran high speed for it's ball at distance from us but parallel to us - it was enough to surprise Aster and made her jump but rather than bark she looked straight at me <3 good girl. Another huge win was someone coming back to the car park past us with their spaniel - I moved onto the grass for some space and put Aster in a sit front and had her look at me the whole time. She didn't break once! I notice she really struggles with focussed heeling in more novel areas as she is in high vigilance mode and cannot contact heel whilst walking forwards AT ALL. All good information for me to mend the holes in our training. Dinnertime was mixing up contact heeling with sit fronts and focussed heeling around the bowl as she has patterned a lot of the drills we've been doing over winter. She was really confused about the sit fronts to begin with!