This weekend Frodo and I will be off to Spain for the Agility World Championships. Tomorrow, Chispa heads off to stay with a friend during our absence. While I’m ok leaving the grown up dogs at the house in the care of the housesitter, puppies require more specific attention, and so, historically, puppies go to a friend’s during international trips. I always panic just a little bit, thinking of all the time that will elapse while I’m gone, but it’s not as if Chispa won’t receive ANY training. And, who knows, maybe she’ll learn a few tricks while I’m gone that I don’t even know about? Easter eggs are always fun.
I’m going to admit I haven’t done much NEW with Chispa in the past week or so, mostly because I’m sort of shifting focus to get in a mental space for AWC. It’s not like preparing for a big event takes all my time; I’m not out training Frodo for hours and hours, but there seems to be a certain narrowing of focus that happens that makes it hard for me to focus on NEW puppy stuff.
I HAVE started Chispa’s running contacts. Just the groundwork, and I’m pretty sure I already mentioned that in a previous post. It’s slow work, just little bits each day, sometimes only a few minutes. I have to keep reminding myself that a few minutes here and there is all it takes, really, and plus, even though Chispa seems like an old soul in many ways, more than a few minutes on any one subject just seems to be a little too much, mentally, for either of us. So I have a short list of behaviors we’re rolling through, currently, all out in the agility arena. Each session I look for a little bit more, a little bit of progress, in the following ways:
If you're not seeing anything more in this post, it's because you're either not a premium subscriber, or you are, but you aren't logged in. Become a premium member to get access to handouts, videos, and a discussion forum for this blog series!Want to get notifications of new posts in this blog?
Subscribing below will sign you up to an email list to get notifications of new content only in this blog, and nothing else 🙂 You won’t be able to see ALL of the content unless you are a paid subscriber.
Want access to ALL the content in this blog?
Paid subscribers get access to details on the training Daisy is doing with Chispa, as well as access to handouts, videos, and a discussion forum where a group of select (non-BC) puppy owners are working alongside Daisy with their puppies!
