Bronze training

Today I owe Bran an apology for ever doubting his abilities to learn so many things in such a short space of time.

We've been working really hard on cementing in the new 'down' and this morning I had an hour to spend doing a few short bursts of training with him whilst Sophie and Moss were in their class.

Bran can do the new 'down' to verbal command alone! I was stunned and really really pleased with him :oD We did a bit of variable hand targetting (all spot on) then a few downs with hand signals, then I gave him just a 'sit' or 'down' verbal command and he got them all. He even managed a 'stand' to verbal only!! Some of the downs involved him sitting and gazing at me, but I held my own and he slid into a 'down' by himself and without my having to repeat the command.

In class, there was only me and Bran and Janie jack russell and her mum, which was really lovely as it was all very relaxed and comfortable and we had a bit of a chat and giggle whilst we were working.

Jo announced that she has a test lined up for 9th October and wanted to check whether the dogs were ready for it, so we spent the whole lesson working through the various exercises needed for the bronze test.

Bran was an absolute star with the recall, loose lead walking, walking with distractions, grooming, inspection, collar removal and door control. The only thing that he didn't nail first time was the 1 minute stay.

I put him into a 'down-stay' and decided to keep eye contact with him so that he could see that I wasn't going anywhere, doing anything or reaching for treats. 45 seconds in he started barking at me for staring at him! I settled him back into position and I looked away and he did it easily.

Jo also got barked at for being just beyond his reach so she suggested capturing the barking with a command as quickly as possible purely because she's never heard him bark before we started trying to teach him to do it on command on Tuesday night and then he did it 3 times within 10 minutes!

I was a very happy and proud mummy after today's efforts :o)

This afternoon, I hooked Bran's lead around the washing line and started encouraging him to bark and he was offering repeated barks to command very quickly, so I removed the lead and he continued to do it. He even managed to show Sophie his new "trick". Good boy!