A bit of a weird one today. My morning session cancelled and I ended up doing more admin than anything else... but that wasn't the weird bit. I was mid-training session with Lupe at the new spot on Bedminster Downs when I see a guy walking purposefully towards me. I figured he was probably going to ask me if I was a dog trainer or something but that wasn't it. All he wanted was to talk about Lupe. He said he saw me and pulled off the road to talk 😳 He asked me what he was, then proceeded to disagree and tell me he's a Dutch Shepherd and there's no GSD in him. This would probably trigger some people but I honestly couldn't care less about anyone else's opinion 😅 For about twenty minutes he followed me around talking about the Mali he had years ago. I got the impression from bits he told me that he was an Irish Gypsy, and seemingly a lonely one at that. Whilst I think he was actually just desperate to talk to someone I think he would have scared a lot of people with the way he came up on me. Anyway, before I was interrupted the training was going well. I think the food lure for the heeling is completely unnecessary now so I'll get Alex to take a look at that on Thursday. I'm also getting reps in on the positions out of motion which is fine, just needs a lot more reps to perfect.

Some of these quirky dog behavior make my day 😁, anyone have any unique fun behavior of your dog to share? https://youtu.be/kp6d_w-ikJw?si=J1HLXo1Ams4XBmk6

I'm unusually tired, I just haven't slept as well the last few days so I've been a bit quiet but I've trained both days. Yesterday I did a quick, but intense session with Lupe. Working on down-stay, one-way engagement, heeling and a tiny bit of search development. I was very happy with his activation barking mostly but I kept the session pretty short and action-packed. Today I took him over Ashton Court, which is one of the busiest parks in Bristol and went for a walk there. I never really take him places like this so it's a much higher level of distraction than he's used to but I had him off-lead and he was good as gold to be fair. I think a combination of neutrality training from the beginning and also a high genetic desire to be with 'his person' (me) pays off. He didn't really care at all about any of the other dogs or people. I did a bit of training with him but mostly just wanted to test him a bit in a tougher environment.

Feel free to chat about anything and take the opportunity to level up. I've been super busy these last two days. Both with work, as usual but also with social things. We played board games with different friends on back to back evenings! Which means staying up late two nights in a row and now I'm knackered. The board game life, what a rock and roll lifestyle. 😎

Today I had Livvy with me so I took the opportunity to work on Lupe's barking. The objective is that when I enter onto the training field he is fully engaged and barking at me to start training. I know, this sounds crazy to normal folk but this is perfect for IGP. It gets the dog into the right mindspace for work. I want him to be demanding that we begin, rather than me begging for his attention. It's so much easier to begin this training with a second person to hold the lead. Then I can frustrate him a little with a toy or food, as soon as I get the barking I mark and reward. It went well, it's not so hard to get him barking right now but I just need the reps so I can add the cue (a little tug on the lead). Maybe I can convince Livvy to help me again tomorrow 😄