Training

Lily has started formal classes on Saturday. She was, as I expected a star pupil. Did everything on the first try and had a lot of fun. We started with focusing on the handler and then sit and down. Down was causing a few problems but she got the hang very quickly. Then we did some recall and recall with distraction. Lily’s recall is brilliant. She is extremely focused on me and one command and she is back with me. We constantly practise it off lead outside and even with other dogs, she is coming straight back if I tell her to. We also did leaves and I particularly enjoyed them. Jessie did the leave with treats fine, then we moved on to toys. Sue the trained took out a big drumbell and placed it on the floor. She said she uses it because it’s big and non of the pups would think about picking it up because it’s bigger then them. I secretly hoped Lily might prove her wrong and when it was our turn. Lily walked to the object, picked it up and walked away with it head and tail held high. The whole room was laughing and Sue was just saying well she is a Retriever she is supposed to pick stuff up. I placed the item back on the floor and walked past it again and Lily did a perfect leave.

After training Lily was tired all day, I guess it took a lot out of her.

Apart from the formal classes I mainly teach Lily at home. We usually spend some time on our walks doing sits, downs and recalls and she enjoys the training. Unlike Jessie she is not solely motivated by food, she enjoys just getting praised and pleasing me. She also has a strong drive to retrieve items and brings them back to me straight away.