W1D6 – Loose Leash Walking
Monkey’s been dealing with a little gastrointestinal distress (we had some weird algae come through the irrigation) so we took yesterday and today off, but I was able to squeeze in a session with him on Wednesday. We worked the same Yin-Yang Pattern from W1D5, but without the warmup on the Delmar Smith Wonder Lead. Our goal was to jump straight into loose leash walking. Since it was a bit later in the day and cooler out, I think Monkey was feeling more bold. I had to take more corrective action than usual to achieve my goal of getting him working within about 2′ of my left side. By no means does that mean I’m treating him roughly, it just means I’m having to do a lot of things to fix mistakes that he’s making like forging ahead of me or exiting the longeing ring.
He seems like he’s feeling better today so tomorrow I think I’ll repeat this D6 session and then give him a test to see if he’s ready to move on. If so, we’ll start introducing some new concepts on Sunday. I’ll probably keep working him in the longeing ring for now, but I may make some enhancements to help keep him a little more engaged. I’ve long been a fan of the way Stonnie Dennis works dogs in his Small Adventures Course so I think I’ll try and build some small adventures for Monkey to try as well. “Uncle Stonnie” has a great YouTube channel I would highly encourage anyone interested in quality dog training to check out: https://www.youtube.com/@StonnieDennis
Hope everyone enjoys the weekend and gets to enjoy some fun late summer activities with their dogs!
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