Yes she has been limping a bit on and off. It seems to come and go, but clearly isn't causing real pain (I've had a dog with arthritis so I've seen what that looks like) as she'll suddenly rush off after something showing no signs of a limp.
Dogs are incredibly good at masking pain and so I'd be very concerned about a limp. Limping at all tends to mean they're in real discomfort, because they try to hide it. Adrenaline suppresses pain, too, so if she gets excited, it's not surprising that she's suddenly "lose" the limp. I'd be getting it checked out by the vet ASAP, and before worrying about how to get her walking close to you - you don't want her to start associating the discomfort she's in with the exercise.
Getting competition level heel-work is still proving impossible. And more to the point Molly has started to look as though she's bored, (she will always walk by by side, bless her, but she has her head down and doesn't look as though she's happy) so I've decided to leave it for a while. What she does seem to enjoy is trick training (she gets all waggy when she knows we're doing this). A lot of our tricks are variations on a theme of carrying objects. When it was very hot we did bobbing for tennis balls - a bucket of water with half a dozen balls in it and I sent her to fetch one at a time. I've also put out two empty flower pots in different places and handed Molly a ball and sent her to put it in the pot I point at. This evening I taught a nose touch to the end of a pole I was holding. She learnt this very quickly and would touch it when I held it in different positions, including jumping if I held it high. She was also willing to run to touch it if I moved it along - I was pleased she didn't try to grab it. I did think that when we've practised this a bit more, I could do the same thing with a wooden spoon and maybe get back to heelwork this way by holding the spoon by my hip.
It seems to me a good idea to give certain things a rest from time to time, it's good that Molly enjoys the trick training I might try some of those with Cassie. She did frankfurter bobbing at the internal obedience comp we went to, she was the 2nd one, after a dachshund, to suss that you had to put your nose right in the water!
Hehe, I love the sound of tennis ball (and frankfurter!) bobbing. I might have to try this with my lot
Just what I needed to cheer me up -- how could I not of thought of that! It was quite comical watching him, his nose was the closest of course and his long snout went through the water with a deadly accuracy
A bit more trick training this evening -Molly does love this. I bought a cheap artificial flower and taught her to fetch it from a flower pot and hand it to me. She learnt this in about 2minutes -the key thing for her to learn was holding it by the stem and not the petals. I'm going to refine the delivery and perhaps teach a funny cue ( me singing 'you don't bring me flowers' ?) and then I'll video it. Nearly all Molly's tricks are based on retrieving or carrying something to a place and I find I'm thinking about new ideas all the time. It's the thing we've talked about often -training the dog you have in front of you. I never dreamed I'd be into trick training but Molly becomes so animated compared with the plodding dog doing heelwork.
This is my entry for rallyonline.org competition level1. I realise there are several errors but I’m pleased with her wagging tail and the way she mostly ignored all the distractions, most of which you can’t see (groundsman on small tractor waiting for us to clear up so he could get on with doing something to the grass, other dogs off lead etc.)
Umm... that looks a bit complicated! Well done. How on earth do you remember all the moves in the right sequence or is that part of the challenge?
The site publishes the course and you set it up. You don’t have to remember them, each pot has a sign stuck to it . In a real competition the signs are A4 size on proper stands but to save costs I’ve got half-size pegged to flower pots weighted with pebbles. Make-do-and-mend dog training.
Ah, I see, thank you @Joy. Mmmm...maybe we can do something along these lines for one of the challenges....
The signs can be downloaded for free and printed at home from here: https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/media/352541/level_1_signs_with_explanations_a4.compressed.pdf
Well done @Joy, Molly does look happy. We had a go at the puppy Rally at a fun day at the dog training club, I rather enjoyed it, found it a good way to engage with her because actually you are constantly asking for different things one after the other, aren't you?
Yes, it’s much easier than obedience, as it’s only a couple of metres of heel each time before a sit, down, turn etc.
Today at the recreation ground we practised directional send-away to a mat and then down. We’d been asked to train this at one of the classes I attend and as Molly already does directional sending to a retrieve I thought it should be easy. I put out two mats and sent her to one. She bounded off in another direction entirely and came running back pleased as punch with a plastic bottle of orange drink in her mouth! (Just rubbish left on the ground, not someone’s lunch.) She handed it to me and I sent her to the mat again. This time she went straight there and lay down. I threw the plastic bottle as a reward. We did several more send-aways with the bottle as a reward after each one and she was perfect -and so happy and enthusiastic! I’m so glad I didn’t grumble at her for going after the bottle the first time. It was almost as if she was saying, ‘Look, it will be more fun if we use this!’ A reminder that it’s our dogs who decide what is rewarding.
