Striding from the Box- After 3 months of re-training.

So with Baer's striding, repetition is still the main thing we're working on right now.

I've been working on adding distraction (other people/dogs around us), stimulation (being in a different room or outside), and speed (me standing still holding the tug, then walking away slowly, then jogging away from her), and resistance/restraint (a handler holding her back).

Once she can handle me jogging away, with a handler holding her, I move on to the next step, slowly weening out props. This is the hard part for her- once the visual is gone, it's difficult for her to rely on muscle memory. Which is expected.

Here's from last night's session:





We've been working on this almost daily, for 3 months. Not a lot of time when you think about it, and she's improved a lot since we started.

Our next Flyball tournament is in less than 3 weeks. We'll see what happens. I won't be upset if the training doesn't take at the tournament, obviously. I just want to get Flash around another tournament setting and I'd like to compete with Baer again. This is a 3 lane tournament and I've never been to such a big tournament. I'm making excuses but hey, I'm not perfect. After this tournament we will continue with our training and see what happens.