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Tess is retrieving well in the yard now,  and delivering reliably to hand.   This week we took this retrieving exercise into the grass paddock.   I put the double lead on Tess in case I needed to guide her into the correct delivery position.   I wouldn't do this with a dog that had not been taught a clicker delivery as it might cause the dog to drop the  dummy. Tess has been trained to 'hold' on to the dummy as a part of the clicker retrieve, so this is not a problem for us.

Running in is encouraged at this stage

Tess has not yet been steadied and so I allow her to run after the dummy as I throw it.  I want to encourage a fast outrun and return to begin with,  and to make sure her delivery is tidy.

It is nice to see her flying out and straight back to me despite the distractions of the rabbity smelling field.

The delivery standards we established in the yard are holding up so far,  which is nice. 

We have been practicing heelwork daily and at some point during each session,  I have been dropping the lead and letting it trail on the ground whilst Tess continues to walk to heel for a few paces.  I always precede and follow this with plenty of heelwork on the lead so that if she makes a mistake, it will be sandwiched in between plenty of successes.

We have also made progress with the 'stay'  and Tess will now sit for a couple of minutes at my side,  a minute at two paces from me,  and up to 15 seconds at ten paces.

I have had problems moving around Tess without her shuffling and swiveling to look at me,  when I try and walk in a circle around her.  So I am going back over teaching her to sit absolutely still -  no paws moving at all  -  whilst I step all around her at close quarters and in different directions.  We have been doing this in the yard,  and indoors at home.  I have narrowed the problem down to her being uncomfortable with me moving around just behind her.  She is now learning to keep quite still whilst I take one step  backwards from the heel position, then one step to my left,  stepping across her tail and behind her,  and one step forwards, to finish up in a mirror of the heel position, with her sitting on my right.  She did not like me doing this at all to begin with.

We had a slight setback when I stepped on her tail instead of over it! But other than that we are making progress.

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TRAINING TESS

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