The plan for today was to put together some more technical training tip and then I reminded mum again about the basics. You see it is 30’s degrees celsius here in Sydney today and the wind is crazy….. Hot and windy make it somewhat challenging for me to pay attention, plus I’m still catching up on zzzzs after the weekend. Attention span limited in the heat and lots of things moving around with the wind. But it is Tuesday and off to agility training we went. Strangely enough it wasn’t one of our best sessions….
So this brings me to my point. Short and sweet…. Yep when we go to the more formal training it is normally an hour, or longer on Saturdays, but we don’t work continuously. We do a run or an exercise and then we have a break.
The most effective training we do, especially with the basic, are quick little pieces of 5 minutes or less. Walking up to get the mail from the letterbox mum takes some treats and we will practice a sit then continue to heel. Then she will get me to drop and continue to heel. We might practice some of the Rally O stations (some good little exercises which are well explained in the Rally O rules) which are a bit harder but fun to do.
Going for our morning or evening walks we often practice little pieces. If I am off lead mum will call me with a “come” and get me to do a nice recall sit in front. We might practice some agility left and right hand side work as we walk along or even throwing treats out in front to practice some distance. We will do more details for these little exercises in upcoming Tuesdays, but the main thing is, training doesn’t have to be an hour long formal training session.
Going back to the start remember it is about having fun. On days that are tough conditions, don’t push it. If something isn’t working either take it back a step and make it easier, move onto something else or stop and have a play. It isn’t fun for us dogs when you get frustrated and if it isn’t fun we are unlikely to do what you want no matter how hard you try. An agility run normally goes for less than a minute (unless Darcy and I are doing Strat Pairs) and a Rally O course just a little longer. Keep it short and sweet…
Now back to staying cool and keeping away from branches….
1st World Dog 
Phew what a scorcher today – cooled off in the harbour this afternoon – just stood there chilling out:)
I wish. We were going to head to the beach after training but seriously windy so went home and laid on floor boards.
We practised lying down and cutting nails today. I finally got to cut the nails on the back legs… @____@!!
Adorable:)
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