No Back Seat for Stetson

I am obviously consumed with Madison and her Stem Cell Therapy that has just happened this past week.  But Stetson isn't really taking much of a back seat to all this.  As a matter of fact, if it weren't for him, crate rest for her would be an incredible challenge.  But he's willing to relax in a crate when she has her time out in the house and he's been very patient to stay his distance in the yard while I walk her on lead.

We've been busy learning about taking obedience skills out of the house and the training building, into the "real world".  The past two weekends I've taken him out to work in strange, public places.  Last weekend we went to a nearby high school parking lot and practiced our heeling and stays.  We then went to a local pet supply store and practiced "stays" and the "sit for exam".  He was, as always, the sweet and willing partner.

Practicing our figure eight heeling pattern in a high school parking lot with some cones as "posts"

Happy to receive his rewards for good heeling work :)

"Sit Stay" in the kitty food aisle of a local pet supply store

I began training the "2-on 2-off" method for contact training from Rachel Sanders via her video and the board that Max 200 makes to support the video, (both can be purchased via Clean Run).  The concept was difficult for him to begin with because he's used to NOT being rewarded for coming off his platform that we use for obedience signal training.  It took some time to teach him that these boards were to different items, used for two separate sports and commands.  As always, he's a bright boy and he quickly decided that I must know what I was talking about...

Blue board is used to teach contacts for agility, it is raised about 3 inches from the ground.  Black board is for obedience signals and the PVC "rails" on the side are intended to keep the dog on the board for down, stand and sit; barely raised from the floor, but he knows this board the best because we've used it for a year now; he thought he was supposed to do those things on the blue board too...

Finally I get a 2-on 2-off that we will translate to the contact obstacles (teeter, dog-walk and A-frame) in agility

The board he's known for a year now - the obedience board; used primarily for signals to keep his rear in place and keep him from moving forward...  He is actually giving me a nice "down" in this picture, although it appears his elbows may be up, they are really correct on the ground.  He was THRILLED to work this after trying to convince me the blue board was the same thing...

This past Sunday we went back to the pet supply store to work.  This time I asked him to heel and he quickly decided to try to ignore the distractions in the store and give me what he could for the exercise.  Then we practiced some "sit stays" in various places and a "sit for exam".  The stays were good, he was challenged with me picking the aisle where the bins of "bulk treats" were open and within nose reach.  But he pulled it off beautifully.

He gets extra stars for his "sit for exam" exercise.  I explained to a shopper that he had a match coming up and we were practicing...  Then I told her about the "sit for exam" exercise and asked if she'd mind to just walk up to him, touch his head and walk away.  She agreed to help, but when she touched his head, she immediately began cooing over how soft he was, and began to fluff his head, rub his ears and such.  Mr. Social Butterfly pretty much immediately got wide eyed with excitement.  How badly did he want to get up from that sit and greet her??  Really, what a sweet dog to try so hard under such difficult circumstances :)  Love my boy!!!

Sit Stay with the open bin of treats taunting him (I don't deserve such a sweet boy)

Sweet face that gazes up to me when heeling, he was a little worried about the activity nearby, but he tried so hard!

This dog gives me so much.  There are times that I wonder if in his canine brain he ever "dreamed" of a person that was anything like me.  I don't know, but he is certainly a dream come true for me!