The Spaniel Annals

Sunday as the rain poured, we worked under the patio roof on details:

Fronts with Kani holding a retrieve object, a leather scent article…

Finishes (where the dog moves from front to heel position) with Reardon…

and holding the dumbbell with Roz…

The challenge with drill work like this is keeping it fun and light.  That means knowing how much repetition each dog can take and stay enthusiastic, what each dog’s internal motivators are, and what each dog needs to understand that these drills are always done with speed and precision.  And I better not get bored either!  Bored trainers create bored dogs.

But no matter if obedience training is done in longer sessions or these shorter drill sessions of 5-10 minutes, something else is going on beyond simply teaching behaviors.  In these moments when we come together around a physical exercise, we are both being “trained” to a picture of teamwork.  In the end, we both become obedient not simply to a set of exercises, but to a relationship.  It is a relationship where, through the grammar and syntax of  training, I am saying to the dog, “I know you…I am fully present for you…You are vital to me.”  And the dog is saying it back. That’s really what it’s all about.