207 - lots of work in the field on recall, fetch, run after ball but recall or stop, marked retrieves, hunting etc What I have realised is when someone appears in the field I change my behaviour which cues to Mabel a person has appeared which changes her behaviour….. or I leave the field as I don’t want her to run at them so I avoid it altogether. So…. I’ve stopped leaving when a person or dog arrives and stay in the field but the opposite side to them… we had three dogs and people in the field yesterday and just stayed focused on our training and avoided getting too close. Mabel saw them but stayed focused and it was all good! 208 - woodland morning walk on flexi lead (woods is next to a busy road). But we trained lots, we saw lots of people and dogs and she came in to my left side on command and walked nicely past them all while staying close to my side until released. We did hear a bit of a scuffle and barking ahead of us and a guy then appeared with two collies…. One who came over to Mabel and the owners going ‘be nice, be nice’ and I’m thinking ‘shit’ but Mabel ignored and walked past lovely! This afternoon we were in the local field off lead and a lady and lab appeared, Mabel did run over but came straight back. Then a few minutes later she went racing away towards the lady again and I shouted ‘leave’ and she span on a sixpence and came back to me so that was great! The less I avoid the better she will be! Hubby commented how chill she is at home these days and the kids have said she’s calmer too! I’ve been leaving her out of the crate in day with run of most of downstairs and left her for four hours yesterday (that’s my max and not needed to do it for ages) and she was fine and house intact! Love her!

We haven't done this in awhile. Let's see some recent pics.

Great day at agility, not just the course or tricky wing wrap but the general behaviour! She listened and walked off lead nicely to start lines, waited until told, came away from Carol and only went over when I told her to ‘go see Carol’ Second video was first time she did weaves into a course, not sure why she’s telling me where to go constantly! Think she was just excited! 😂😂😂 She is much better inside and we will be in now till April so should make some good progress! Happy days!

We have been working lots on recall and stops when going after the ball. Initially it had to have stopped moving for her to control herself enough. But today she did it when the ball was still moving - three times! Not in a row as she double guesses me so I do lots of proper fetch so she’s getting it then throw in a recall or stop. Three recalls while mid chase of a moving ball… I then tried to video one and she kept double guessing me so I didn’t get it as proof sadly! But proper chuffed with that! Oh we also practiced recall when chasing a crisp packet blowing across the field AND on our way into the field there was something in the bushes (?poo) that she really wanted and I had to pop back on lead to get her past. When we turned to walk home she raced across that field in direction of whatever it was. I recalled her, she came straight back. She then headed back off on a mission for the ‘thing’ again and I used my ‘ready,steady,go!’ Which ends in a ball throw and she came back. Couple of ball throws then lead on as she would have headed there again! A good day for Mabel!

The moment you've all been waiting for! Well.... @Lauren Edwards and @Sarah Green anyway😂 Sorry it has taken so long. See how you get on with this exercise, the focus shift. I get the feeling a lot of pet dog trainers will be drilling owners to reward eye contact from their dog. This isn't a bad thing at all, but can your dog also be cued to look at something else? Can you ask them to switch between the two? Many sports require a dog to be able to focus it's attention on something other than the handler - in protection work this will be a decoy, for agility jumps or other obstacles, hunting dogs will be looking at game and herders at livestock. Most of them are highly rewarding things to be focused on! Teaching your dog to switch between focusing on you and focusing on a "source" of something good helps to balance engagement with disengagement. You can do this with food or toys. Here I'm revisiting this exercise with Aster after a long time of not training it! It definitely needs some work but you get the idea. Looking forward to your videos! ❤️https://youtube.com/shorts/BMDCceukCtQ?si=U3StJrYynqYI9li2