Basics Saturday

Today we took some time to review some basics.  For Sammie and Speedy this is really just for fun.  Neither of them really care what we do, as long as we train!  For Dean it was an exercise to sharpen his skills.  And Tessa really is still learning.

Speedy started out in front of me.  A stand in position, then sit, down, sit, stand.  Then he did a down from a stand and a stand from a down.  We repeated this in heel and side.

He did very well.  He has to maneuver himself into a sit, and he is slow to down, but I'm not really worried about either of those things.  He's old!

After that, for fun, I did some verbal movement from position to position - front, heel, side.  He did some spins and some twirls.

He enjoyed the session.

Then Dean had a turn.  We did the same things.  He really nails those splat downs!!  He needs a bit of work on his standing, so he doesn't automatically pivot to my side!  He also needs to do a bit more verbal position work.  About the only position he is rock solid on is heel.

Then Tessa came out.  Of course her work was more extensive.  She sat in front of me readily enough, but got confused on the down.  She was certain she was going to offer paws!!  I guess we have done quite a lot of trick work in front in recent months.  I helped her with a big hand signal and she got it.  In heel and side, she went from sit to down readily enough.

We need to work on stands, and on sits from downs.  I haven't even touched stand from a down, although she does down from a stand pretty well.

Since that was a lot of thinking for her, we moved on to prop work.  She liked that.  She did her pivots, and we worked on her circling the pedestal.  I also introduced the paw work that I am hoping to incorporate into her Freestyle routine.

After that, we did some pivot work where she is starting to work on pivoting toward me.  This is a huge challenge for her.  I used a small pedestal, just for her feet, to help her along.  We are starting with her on the right side since it is her stronger pivoting side.  I think this will progress well once she is more used to it.

Then I got her hoop out.  With the hoop on the ground we worked on circles in each direction aroud me, with her going through the hoop.  Then, separately, we worked on having her jump through it.  I held it about 6 inches off the ground in a space where she could not go around it.  She did well with it - better than I expected.

This hoop work is really going to help build her confidence.

Finally, Sammie got a turn.  I let him play with the hoop, too, and we did sits, downs, and stands in front and on my right side.  Sammie loves those splat downs!!

Afterward, I got Dean back out and we just did a bit with pivots on the pedestal.  Dean liked that!

It was a good back to basics day!