Practice makes perfect

This weekend I was out of town, so I didn't get any training in, but yesterday I took Maggie to Buckles Feed Depot and then rollerblading.

I just had Maggie on a regular leash and collar for the feed store and she did well, very little pulling and good attention. I was looking at cat food and litter, so I was turning and stopping a lot. I think the unpredictability contributed to her good behavior since she always had to be watching me. She met the manager and was a bit shy at first (normal while in just a buckle collar oddly enough), but warmed up some and followed my 'go say hi' suggestion. The manager mentioned that she was much more behaved than most dogs and he was surprised she was so quiet and friendly.

Maggie did alert on a small dog in one of the aisles, but it didn't seem to be an aggressive alert - her tail was low and wagging fairly quickly, ears up but not stiff, eyes pretty soft, whining not growling. I just walked her into another aisle, worked a bit of obedience and her focus was back on me. We probably spent a total of about 30 mins in the store.

Next stop was the trail near the sports fields near my house. Maggie runs while I blade. Her "uniform" for blading is a 1.5 inch wide, padded "agitation" collar and a 6ft long adjustable nylon lead w/ a buckle in the handle. The collar distributes force from pulling or quick stops (this type of collar is used in protection training for the same reasons pretty much), the leash allows me to loop it around my waist to keep my hands free or adjust the length depending on the traffic level.

Maggie ran full out w/ me skating as fast as I could for about .1 mile I think. I slowed her down, allowed her to potty, and then headed toward our normal loop around the lake. We alternated running and trotting for 3 or 4 loops, dunno how far that is. Maggie didn't pay any attention to the kids on the playground and didn't react when a person rode past on a bike several times (very good for Maggie, we've been casually working on this for a while).

I practiced having her cross behind me and run on the right a few times since I use this when someone is passing us on the left where she usually runs and she did well. We did pass two dogs on the trail that were barking and lunging and Maggie ignored them after a quick glance and a preemptive "leave it" from me. I did a bit of work with her w/o the leash and practiced stopping and slowing me down as well as catching up for me to grab her collar and reattach a leash. She seemed a bit worried about being offlead and allowing me to grab the collar, but switching my catchup method to a targetting cue rather than a word seemed to help.

Overall two good sessions; very nice to see her behavior improving while just on a flat collar and lead.