Well, where to start on this session?
Gabriella and I arrived with a very wired looking Kodi, I mentioned to Pat that we had been giving Kodi a sausage treat that he had not had since he was about a year old but that we remembered him getting particularly ‘wired’ on them back then. We decided that rather than use those particular treats for the session we would borrow some of Pat’s chicken donughts and see how Kodi faired after a break from the sausages.
Pat was fantastic and managed to show us quickly and easily how to work at calming Kodi and within minutes we were ready to rumble! We started by going over the things that we had begun last week, simple short recalls, distance control, heel work etc then Pat picked on heel work to concentrate on.
We begun by working Kodi on leash and asking for an obedience close/heel and worked our way up and down the hall. Kodi was great being, both focused and enthusiastic. Pat quickly decided to move on to working Kodi under distraction and bought her lovely dog in and left her just a distance, enough to distract, again Kodi faired so well that Pat then moved her dog closer into Kodi’s working zone and we continued to ask for obedience heel work with total concentration. Again Kodi faired so well that Pat decided I should work on the close/heel with Kodi off lead, he was a star! He worked so well, total concentration on what was required and I so pleased when Pat said that she thought Kodi was totally scrumptious and knew several people who would fight tooth and nail to handle Kodi at Obedience competitions. What a turn around, it was not that long ago that he had lost all enthusiasm for obedience and now he just kept asking ‘what next?’.
So now having made some real progress on close/heel we moved on to recall under distraction, we heeled off lead to the distraction (Pat’s lovely dog) then I sat Kodi and recalled him away then we did the opposite and I heeled Kodi back to the distraction then past and up to the opposite end of the hall and recalled him back to me. The first time Pat’s dog proved just that bit too exciting and he ran over to go play but after realising he was not in our good books he recalled perfectly every time……enthusiastic as always!
We did a small amount of heel work whilst Pat was on the move with her dog then Pat moved us on to some stays, down stays and sit stays. Kodi was great at the stays but then they ave always been his ‘thing’. We ended the session with Kodi’s favourite things such as ‘can you catch’, spins, twists and whole sequences of movement for rewards.
All in all a fabulous session, I can’t believe the progress that Kodi has made in his off lead work in 2 sessions with Pat, I can’t wait for session number 3 now!
