The weather this weekend was more like May than March, and the dogs were so wound up with spring fever that yesterday, I took them to the river for training. A weasel came out and watched us for a couple of minutes but the dogs didn’t care for anything but the bumper. We purchased Cesar Millan’s “Illusion” collar which I use on Dakota for training as well as walking, and it works quite well in training.
We spent a good half hour training, then Sophie lost interest and began exploring. I figured that she had earned the right to have some “sniff time” and worked with Dakota on not breaking on the retrieve for another ten minutes or so. Dakota started out with dropping the bumper at the river’s edge, so I would send Sophie down to finish the retrieve – then I realized that this was defeating the purpose of everything I was trying to accomplish.
Working with Sophie and Dakota
So I changed tactics. Just as Dakota would reach the bank on her retrieve, I would step back from the bank to where she couldn’t see me. Since she was intent on finding me, she would forget to drop the bumper and carry it up to me.
(Link to source: Breaking and honor training day 4…)
