I began writing this post on January 30th, and as I re-read it today, I realized that I haven’t gotten to work with the dogs every day, even though I’d really like to do so. They are making some progress, though slowly. We have been working on Pooch to 5K, to get them some basic exercise, and to get them fit for agility and running with me this summer. Well, here’s the post…
This is going to sound weird, but for me, and I think for a lot of professional trainers, it feels like a luxury to work with my own dogs. Because my days are filled with other people’s dogs, and childcare and education, and because no one is paying me to work with my dogs, they are often bumped to the bottom of the priority list. I wonder why they act antsy, weird, and hyper, and I realize it’s because they are not getting enough training, or enough mental stimulation at all. So I have vowed to get at least a few minutes of work in with both of the boys every day, and with Nilla, if time allows. She is 13 now, and was always my husband’s dog (before we met, and still), so she doesn’t enjoy working with me as much as she enjoys his company.
Don’t get me wrong here, every day is work with the dogs, they have to work on house manners and basic social skills, and relaxing (not easy for the herding dog crew!), but they don’t get a lot of interesting, physical or mental challenges on a daily basis. In fairness to myself, it’s not easy to challenge a Collie and an Aussie! It requires a lot of thought and preparation on my part. They are smart, busy, active, quick learning dogs, and it’s not easy to stay a jump ahead.
Today was a good day. Nitro the Aussie got to work on some Control Unleashed stuff (in a rather impromptu fashion) when a neighbor dog who is quite reactive and whom my boys do not like, walked by during our work on fronts. He did react a bit, but quickly moved into a LAT exercise, and recovered quite well. I was proud of him. His fronts were decent, too. And enthusiastic, always enthusiastic! Merlin worked on pivoting with front feet on a telephone book platform, and becoming a little more rear-end aware. He’s maturing, and has no idea of his size, or where all his limbs are located.
Both boys are hard workers, and smart, and I need to remember that, when I’m frustrated with their activity level and behavior! I have the power to calm that behavior down, and they ask for work, the least I can do is assign them some.