Summer has arrived at last and my gorgeous boy has come on leaps and bounds. I'm not sure how it happened but Cupar can walk past the horses without jumping at them. He's ignoring the cows. Did I say ignore? I believe I did. We are still using the only tool in our arsenal for 100% staying at your side. The lead . It shall be used for a long time to come, but we no longer have a jumping , let me at them dog. How did this miracle occur? Training. Fortunately the horses and the cows were very obliging. They stayed at a distance away and I asked one thing from Cupar, to stand and take all these lovely treats from my hand, lots and lots of them. I never asked him to do anything. No sit or look at me, just take the food while the cows or horses were far enough away. We've continued to do this through all our walks ( can I say Cassie loves these walks as she gets to share and has no idea what she's doing right.) We have been doing more walks with just one dog but on the really windy wet days two dogs made for happy owner. So Cupar has been getting better as the weather improved because cows and horses were no longer huddled around a hedge but were nearer the fence. Yesterday was amazing we walked to the river and met two dogs a wee vizsla and the most timid Labrador I've seen in a long time. I did put Cupar on a lead as her owner and I chatted. I let him off lead as we left and he was no longer interested in her and came with me ( recall is still there ) . I do need to work on getting him to wait until I give the ok to go swim. He sees water and dives straight in. I'm nervous about recalling him and being ignored as water to Cupar is high on a list of the best things in the world.On the way home we used the public footpath, the cows were in the field right next to the fence. My boy did brilliant ( on lead) he never once reacted to them, not even when they came right up to the fence. Now we need to practice ignore the sheep. One of our other walks is on a footpath that is in the middle of two fields ( it's all fenced off) but with lambs and sheep moving about has Cupar I think more curious than afraid, I feel he may see them as something to chase and play with. So the lead stays on even though there is a fence between us and the sheep. My boys growing up but he's still the happiest dog I've ever had. My happy happy boy today . https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!ALvxS6ITTEF-iPM&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg
It's so good to hear such a positive result of training , and he looks so happy running back to you. Well done
Well done, I'm going to be doing all of that with a 4 year old next Summer ......so glad to hear if your success and your growing confidence in him. Love that photo of him charging back to you full of glee x
