Painful Admission #1

OK, if I am going to do what I aspire to do with this blog I am going to have to make some painful admissions from time to time. So here is the first one, I stayed up too late last night and didn't get up in time to do any conditioning work with the dogs this morning. In my defense, I was trying to catch up with some of my California friends, but still didn't reach them. But I didn't get to bed until 11:30 and that is just too late to get up at 4:30. I got up about an hour later and futzed around with the dogs - lots of petting and playing before truly starting the day. So, I'll have to figure out something for tonight. But ...  I formulated a plan on the way to work :-)   All I need to do is stop and buy some string :-)

Did some more work on Perch with both dogs last night. Probably 15 - 18 minutes of clicker work between them. Both are definitely progressing - Gata faster than Tor on this. I can now get her to put either back foot on the platform by itself. Tor is still trying to convince me that there are much easier ways of getting on the platform than by backing onto it :-)  But he is definitely getting the hang of it.

It is quite interesting to evaluate the differences between them. Both dogs back up fine. But Tor backs up much better than Gata - longer steps and more fluid movement. However, that tends to hinder him in stepping up onto the platform - he doesn't really shorten his stride to step back up onto it. So he takes a big step and has to essentially raise himself up with his foot much farther behind him than Gata does. But he is starting to get the idea that it is easier for him if he takes a shorter step.

After that I did a little bit of bitework on the Heuwinkl wedge with each of them. About 10 minutes each - fast with lots of outs in lots of different orientations - also a nod to Team Heuwinkl. For Gata, the point is to teach her to out no matter what when I call out. And also to discourage, a little, her tendency to auto-out. For Tor, it is just about outing quickly and cleanly, no matter how much fun he is having. He's a real thrasher and fighter so the longer he stays on the wedge (and probably sleeve, too) the less he wants to out. So, we are working on that.

Anyway, we all worked up a "sweat" during our bitework and we were all happy by the end of it :-)