Ted Hup!

Ted is always showing what a bright and eager dog he is. I brought him into our SchH training session today just to goof around to keep him happy and give him some mental stimulation since it's too cold to track and we have no sheep handy.

He did a long down with dogs working around him, just like any self-respecting SchH dog, and beautiful attention work. I think that if you have a bond with a dog, you can get them to do things with very simple explanations.

As part of our 'attentive walking' routine I did a go-back where I dropped a tracking glove, walked him around, then sent him to find it. He LOVED that, since it involved a glove. After that, I hid the glove here and there and sent him to find it and he adored that game. It was around that point that I thought I would do a retrieve over this low fence of babygates, aboud 3 feet high. What was funny is that although Ted can easily jump, he's never been asked to do it on command. I had to let him know it was OK - it was not a test to see if he would be a 'bad boy.' (Ted worries about those things).



After praising him for jumping, Ted turned into this impressario. I added a lie-down to it, and threw the glove, then sent him. He flew over and flew back! This was so amazing - I took this video - only the third time being asked, and he put it all together. Isn't he beautiful? This dog just wants to work, and wants to please. Oh, I hope we find land and get sheep this year!!

PS this can be motivational and carry over to tracking by the way - it involves a glove, it's a bonding activity, and it keeps Ted sharp and asks him to perform a task (I'm just sayin')...